Splendid House Reef and the Sardine run of Moalboal, The Philippines!

Amazing reefs, abundant marine life, dozens of dive sites and even shoals of sardines in the tropics! Explore the lovely dive town of Moalboal and SCUBA dive around Pescador Island.

While doing my PADI IDC Staff Instructor course I spend a month in Moalboal and I absolutely loved it. This beach town is located on the South-West of Cebu Island in the Visayas province in The Philippines. Here you will many dive shops, people on dive holiday and people doing internships and courses to become a dive professional.

The dive center where I did my course is Neptune Diving Adventure run by Johan Blixt from Sweden. From the moment I showed up on day one with my dive gear inside an IKEA bag we had great fun. Besides from the personal and professional service their location is awesome.

Right in front of the dive shop is an impressive house reef, a wall, with everything you could wish for regarding marine life. There are even sardines around, shoaling in big groups, something you do not expect in the tropics!

Country	Philippines
Dive area name	Visayas, Cebu & Pescador Island, Moalboal
Dive center	Neptune Diving Adventure
Famous for	Soft corals, wrecks, critters, macro, pelagic
Price	Single shore dive with guide about $28,- including dive equipment, marine park fee, towel, coffee/tea/water. Discounts on multiple dives and packages.
Hotel recommendation	Quo Vadis Dive Resort

Impressions of diving around Moalboal

There are so many marine life species to identify you can do this all day. Just a few species pictured below: Bubble Coral (Pleragyra sinuosa), Bubbly honeycomb coral, Bushy feather star, Cerianthids, Green turtles, Indian tube worm, Juvenile round batfish, Juvenile sweetlips (plectorhinchus chaetodonoides), Lion fish (Pterois volitans), Nudibranch (Doridacea), Nudibranch - Wart slug (Phyllidia), Redlined sea cucumber (Thelenota rubralineata), Round crab, Striped eel catfish and Sardines.

Comparing dive destinations

Bottom structure	Reef structure	Pelagic (big stuff in the blue)	Big reef (bigger stuff on the reef)	Macro (small stuff on the reef)	Current (stream)
Flat bottom with bumps/big rocks/pinnacles	Hard corals tree-shape (not moving)	Sharks	Turtles	Nudibranchs (snails)	No current
Slope (going down slowly)	Soft corals tree-shape (moving)	Rays	Eels/snakes	Sea horses	Small (you can easily swim against it)
Wall (steep but you see the bottom)	Table-/fan-shape	Trevally/Jacks/Tuna	Groupers	Scorpion/frog fish	Medium (you can swim against it for a little while/higher air consumption)
Drop off (steep and you can't see the bottom)	Anemones	Barracudas	Lobsters/crabs	Octopus/squid	Strong/reef hooks (you cannot swim against it)
Blue (no reference)	Sponges	Sardines/herrings	Puffers	Shrimps	Pumping/washing machine/OMG/hold your regulator (superman)

About the organization of Neptune Diving Adventure

This dive center of Neptune Diving Adventure is located along the walking street of Moalboal. The dive center offers free water/coffee/tea for customers and plenty of space to sit down, write your logbook and look up some fish in the book mentioned above.

"SHUT UP AND DIVE" is their slogan and you will understand why once you enter the dive center area. All is perfectly arranged for a week or longer of diving.

There is a storage area where you can have your own crate and leave your equipment in the evening. Plenty of space to set-up your equipment, rinsing area and a shaded area to dry your equipment after diving. On top of the dive center there is a restaurant called Lantaw with delicious Asian food.



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