Diving in Tubbataha Reefs

Whitetip reef sharks are what Tubbataha is known for. UNESCO's listing says the property supports the highest population densities known in the world for the species1, and the park's 2025 shark survey, an average of seven sharks per hectare across 18 dives, found whitetip and grey reef sharks making up 96 percent of sightings2. Triggerfish City and Shark Airport were the most active sites, and one school at Triggerfish City held 26 grey reef sharks. Green and hawksbill turtles are the steady company. Mantas, hammerheads and whale sharks are a bonus that does not come every week.

The diving is wall diving. Divers describe walls that begin at 12 to 15 metres and drop past recreational depth into sea averaging 750 metres, worked as a drift along blue water at 20 to 25 metres, then multi-levelled back to the reef top for the last third. Some repeat liveaboard divers find the walls uniform beside Komodo or Raja Ampat. Over the drop-offs come the sharks and the schooling fish: bigeye trevally, barracuda and bumphead parrotfish, with titan triggerfish giving Triggerfish City its name.

The statutory dive map annexed to the 2025 tourism rules marks 17 dives3. Eight are on the North Atoll: Shark Airport, Washing Machine, Seafan Alley, Wall Street, Amos Rock, Terraces, Malayan Wreck and South Park, which sits on the North Atoll rim despite its name. Seven are on the South Atoll: Triggerfish City, Black Rock, Delsan Wreck, Staghorn Point, Ko-Ok, T-Wreck and South West Wall. Two are at Jessie Beazley Reef, JB West and JB East. Roughly 30 percent of the atolls' circumference is dived at all4.

The protection is old and layered. Presidential Proclamation 306 made it a no-take park in 1988, UNESCO inscribed it in 1993, and Republic Act 10067 gave it its own act of Congress in 20104. The act sets the park at 97,030 hectares5; UNESCO and Ramsar record the property at 96,8286. Counts of life vary by counter and year: UNESCO's current text gives over 360 coral species and almost 700 fish, and the park's 2025 report records over 800 fish2.

The reef has lost ground in places. The 2025 monitoring found shallow hard coral steady since 2022 while coral cover and fish biomass declined at the deeper stations, and water temperature passed 30 degrees for a third consecutive year2. Patches of regrowth sit beside the decline.

Book the berth before the flight. Every dive is run from an accredited liveaboard: the park has no shore access, no day boat and no accommodation, and the park office states that it runs no commercial trips. The Tubbataha Protected Area Management Board is the sole policy-making and permit-granting body5, so you never apply to the park. The operator holds an annual permit to operate and a seven-day vessel entry permit for each trip, and you book a berth and pay the conservation fee through the vessel. Berths go early, and the best weeks can sell a year ahead. The rules set no daily limit on divers, and a carrying-capacity study was underway when the current management plan was written4.

Fly to Puerto Princesa. Guests go aboard between six and eight in the evening for waivers, a park briefing and a coast guard check, and nobody dives that day. The park authority measures 92 nautical miles to the park4, and operators quote nearer 150 kilometres, so expect the figure to vary; the crossing runs 10 to 12 hours overnight. The usual trip is six nights and about 16 dives in all, at up to four a day: first dive on the morning of day two, with a sunset dive among them, whole days on one atoll before the boat repositions, and Jessie Beazley as a single stop on the way in or out. Most trips leave from Puerto Princesa. A minority start elsewhere, such as an eight-day route out of Negros that calls at Cagayancillo, the municipality the park belongs to.

Plan around weather, because no law closes the park. Rough seas run November to March under the northeast monsoon, and moderate northeast winds between mid-March and June give the calm that allows regular visits4. Trips cluster from mid-March to mid-June, yet the park's records show the 2024 season starting on 20 February and ending on 29 July7. Water runs 28 to 29 degrees on divers' logs and repeat visitors wear a 3 mm full suit. Visibility is generally excellent, with 35 metres logged on a good day. Current is variable, mild across whole trips and enough to turn a dive on others.

The board sets conservation fees by resolution and not by statute8, so they move between seasons: the current schedule is in the fee note, paid in pesos before each entry at one rate for every visitor, diver or not9. A dive professional leads every dive, at no more than eight divers to one professional. Keep two metres from any animal; touching, feeding, chasing and blocking its path are all prohibited3. Gloves are barred without a medical certificate, and a guide may not carry a camera while working, which matters if you meant to hire one to film you. Nothing anchors, so vessels tie to numbered moorings. Uncertified divers may not scuba dive here, and decompression dives need prior certification, training and equipment. The islets and lagoons are closed to landing and, without authorisation, to diving, and vessels keep 100 metres off the islets. Entering without authorisation carries six months to a year in prison and a fine of PHP 100,000 to 300,000, and reef damage is fined at not less than PHP 12,000 per square metre plus restoration8.

The rules name no grade above certified, yet this is repetitive wall diving, up to four dives a day over water that runs past 100 metres, and it rewards experience and gas discipline. Nitrox earns its keep, and at least one vessel puts every guest on 31 to 32 percent. Decide the evacuation question before you pay. There is no evacuation from the reef itself: in 2024 a crew member with appendicitis was reached by the coast guard only once the vessel was back near Puerto Princesa, and a guest who dislocated a hip was returned to the city for surgery7. A chamber at the end of the crossing may not be working, so dive conservatively all week and hold insurance that pays for hyperbaric treatment.