Boracay and Its Neighboring Dive Sites

Boracay, one of the famous tourist destinations in the world, is known for its powdery white sands, crystal clear blue waters that contrast the expansive clear blue sky.  Without doubt, Boracay is popular as one of the world’s best as to water activities such as swimming, jet skiing and other water sports.  Scuba diving is also included in the list.  There are at least 12 dive centers doing lucrative business around this island, which offer excellent diving lessons for those who are yet to start to learn the sport and provide dive equipment for the advanced dive enthusiasts. 

There are also several diving sites in the hard to reach locations in the neighboring islands such as Sibuyan Sea, Tablas, Romblon, Semirara Island among others.  Closer to Boracay, there are some first class scuba diving sites catering divers of all levels, that is, from the neophytes to advanced divers.  Some sites are excellent for snorkeling as well.  Some diving sites are between 10 to 18 meters deep and are the favorite dive sites for beginners.  However, advanced divers prefer deep dive sites such as the Friday’s Rock. Here you will find interspersed colorful corals, the variety of which range from soft to hard coral reefs.  A lot of variety of fishes can be found in these dive sites.  These include butterfly fishes, wrasses, damsel fishes, tangs, snappers, stingrays, lion fishes and scorpion fishes.  Most dive masters can take you to the fish feeding station where the fishes swarm around divers expecting to be fed. 

There are two dive sites situated a little northwest of Friday’s Rock named the Shallower Dive and the Deeper Wall.  You drop off to 24 meters then you’ll go deeper to 30 meters and down to 50 meters.  On the Shallower Dive, you will find that the top of the reef is covered with soft corals along with groups of angel fishes and trigger fishes.  Diving on the Deeper Wall, divers will find delightful large gorgonians of all colors as well as big stingrays.  There are also a lot of huge sweet lips, tuna and occasional barracudas and sharks.  

Found in the Southeast of Boracay is the Crocodile Island.  The island is named as such because of its shape which resembles to that of a crocodile.  The Crocodile Island is another popular dive site, but it has strong current owing to its location between Boracay and Panay.  The bottom seabed is about 234 meters at its deepest, but the top of the reef is only about 10 meters.  In this dive site, you can find sweet lips, wrasses, trigger fishes, butterfly fishes and snappers.  There are also pretty blue gorgonians found. Be careful as there are a few sea snakes found in the site. 

Another excellent dive close to Boracay is the Laurel Island.  Caution should be exercised as currents can get very strong here.  Yet, these strong currents encourage corals to open up their orange and yellow polyps to feed microscopic elements.  Big sponges and beautiful large gorgonians are found in this diving site.  

 

At the northern end of Boracay, divers can find Yapak.  This is a deep wall starting around 30 meters and descending beyond 60 meters depth. Currents are tricky in here and the water is usually rough, but for the advanced divers and enthusiasts for big animals, this is the best diving site Boracay has to offer.  Corals of different sizes, shapes and colors abound.  There are various fishes found in this dive site such as the snappers, sweet lips, surgeons, rainbow runners, pennants.  Barracudas, whitetip, manta rays, hammerhead and gray reef sharks are also sighted in this dive site.  This is definitely not a dive for beginners.      

Visit and explore Boracay!  The island is not only known for its excellent white sand beaches, crystal clear blue waters and expansive blue skies, but also is one of the most interesting and the most exciting dive sites in the country and in the world. 

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Ann Cervales, Philippines