Siete Pecados

Siete Pecados, Spanish for Seven Sins, is a shallow coral reef wrapped around seven small rocky islets a few hundred metres off Busuanga Island. There is no beach and landing on the islets is not allowed, so each dive begins at a moored boat, with the reef almost under the hull. Massive table corals and patches of staghorn cover the top, with large heads of Porites between them, and giant clams of two species sit set into the coral.

The coral slope below the reef top is the working heart of the dive, with the outer drop-offs falling away beyond it. At the eastern end, off the easternmost islet, Barracuda Point is where hundreds of barracuda are reported shoaling, in water only 2 to 6 m deep.

In April 2016 a monitoring expedition surveyed this reef by scuba and set what it counted against a 2006 baseline1. Live hard coral at 6 to 10 m stood at 55.4 percent, no significant change from 2006 and rated good. In the shallows at 2 to 3 m it rose from 53.4 to 63.4 percent, also rated good. The survey recorded 61 macroinvertebrate species, among them the two giant clams.

The same chapter carries the other half. Overall reef-fish density fell 71.5 percent between 2006 and 2016, from 4,932 individuals per 500 square metres to 1,404.5, and target reef fish, the species that get fished, are rated very poor on richness despite a 4.2 percent rise. The coral held and the fish count dropped, in a park that has been protected since 2005.

That protection began with villagers. The sanctuary was set up in 2005 on the recommendation of community members of Barangay Tagumpay2, it is one of ten established marine protected areas in the municipality of Coron3, and it received a Blue Park Silver Award in 2024. A local People's Organization patrols it from a floating guard house, with mooring buoys and signboards marking the water.

Live coral sits 1 to 2 m under the surface here, and the cover is high. Buoyancy is the skill that matters: hover, keep the gauges clipped short, and use the mooring buoys. Sites just outside Coron Bay can be clear before high tide and poor after it, so ask the crew when high water falls.

No working recompression chamber in Coron is confirmed. On a reef this shallow the practical points are oxygen on the boat and a crew that knows its plan for an injured diver.

At some hours more than ten boats moor on the reef, with snorkellers in the water between them, and the two easternmost islets are the busiest. Arriving by taxi to the facing beach and renting a boat or kayak gets you on the reef early morning or late afternoon, outside the tour hours. Whenever you go in, send up a marker buoy before you ascend and surface beside a hull where the crew can see you.