nudibranchs, shrimp, crabs and lots
of other small critters. This can be a
good macro dive and it is shallow
enough to allow for looking around
for small things in the shallows.
- Alea Beach
Icons:
Location: W. San Miguel Island
Depth: 0 to 10 ft. (0 to 3m)
This is a private beach and
permission to use the beach can be
gotten in Donsol. But even if you
don’t go ashore, snorkeling from
your anchored banca is very nice.
It's a shallow open bay and the
bottom has small coral heads, brain
corals and sea feathers. Lots of
starfish are also found in the area.
Look for pufferfish and lizardfish in
the sea feathers and trumpetfish
hiding in the fronds.
- Pasil Reef
Icons:
Location: Ticao Island Resort
Depth: 0 to 30 ft. (0
to 9m)Pasil Reef is right in
front of Ticao Island
Resort and is a great
third dive and it is
generally reserved as
a night dive. Look for
the usual suspects
including sleeping
whitetips, mantis shrimps and
marauding crabs looking for a meal.23) San Rafael
Icons:
Location: Off San Rafael Village
Depth: 5 to 30 ft. (1.2 to 9m)This is a shallow and mucky dive
with just enough current to sweep
the silt away, making photography
rewarding despite silty conditions.
This is the kind of dive where two is
a crowd as silt gets kicked up easily
and visibility lessens quickly, so
divers should spread out to avoid
making too much of a mess for one
another, especially if macro
photography is the goal of the dives.
Among the creatures seen here
are hairy frogfish, waspfish, lots of
aggressive little saddleback
anemonefish and their anemones,
mantis shrimp, nudibranchs, small
red or orange frogfish and lots
more. One can see Mount Mayol
from the boat on the ride back.San Miguel cliffline