NEWS

LAMAVE AND THE PHILIPPINE SIREN TEAM UP FOR SHARKS

By Gonzalo Araujo

This January we (LAMAVE) teamed up for a third time with Worldwide Dive and Sail to bring an exclusive trip around the Visayas, Philippines. This trip was designed to visit the Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines (LAMAVE) project site in Sogod Bay, Southern Leyte, and sites where marine megafauna abounds in Cebu, Bohol and Leyte islands.

This year’s trip was similar to our 2019 joint itinerary (more on that here), with a small tweak: we headed to the north of Cebu first to see if we could find some thresher sharks off Malapascua Island. Thresher sharks (Alopias spp.) are globally ‘Endangered’ based on a recent status update suggesting >75% of the populations have declined in the past three generations. It is therefore important to highlight and protect critical and important habitats for these vulnerable species.

We boarded the M/Y Philippine Siren in Mactan with a lot of excited divers! The excitement and expectation could be felt before I boarded the boat. The crew, led by captain Russell and cruise directors Jona and Chrissie, with open arms and smiles as always. It’s always a good feeling boarding this vessel. The crew works extremely hard to make sure guests are well looked after and fantastic diving experience is pursued.

The trip started in Capitancillo island, a tiny island off bogo, northeast Cebu. It has beautiful hard corals in the shallows, and a fantastic wall full of critters and fans. The first two dives of the trip we did there, and then we moved on north to Malapascua Island: afternoon and night dives on the west side of the island sheltering us from the northeast monsoon winds locally known as amihan.

The following day we woke up before sunrise, a 5AM wake-up call, ready to be in the water before 6AM. These early starts resonate with me: I completed my Divemaster in Malapascua back in 2011, and 4AM starts were a daily thing! The reason for this early start is totally worth it- thresher sharks use Monad Shoal to get cleaned at sunrise making it an opportunistic time to spot the elusive fox sharks. In a timely manner, 6AM we are headed down to a 30m cleaning station. Visibility was good but we were unlucky on the cleaning station. As we depart we spot three threshers getting cleaned a little deeper. We let them be after having a good look, and return to the Siren (after spotting some whitetip reef sharks along the way!). The following 3 dives (including the night dive) were at Gato Island, just west of Malapascua. Gato has amazing diving: a tunnel with whitetip reef sharks, large rock formations full of soft corals, nudibranchs, frogfish, cuttlefish (mating!), amongst others. Fantastic diving.

The next day we moved back east to Monad Shoal for another sunrise dive and alas, threshers got a little closer (camera in the wrong setting means I didn’t get a good snap #facepalm). We also spotted bentfin devil rays (Mobula thurstoni) and more whitetip reef sharks. Happy divers! We then moved the boat towards Leyte, stopping at Kalanggaman Island for some beautiful wall diving. A few green turtles spotted there, mushroom coral pipefish. Beautiful soft and hard corals on the western side of the island in the shallows. We then started the long trip to Sogod Bay- 16 hours to Napantao in San Francisco, Southern Leyte. Along the way we had bow-riding spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) and elusive brown footed boobies hunting on the flying fish scared off by the boat!

Kalanggaman Island, Leyte

Napantao was something else. One can tell immediately when jumping in and schools of fish abound, hunting big-eyed trevally and thriving hard corals. Frogfish (painted, giant), cuttlefish, pygmy seahorses and fans of every colour just add to the spectacle that this well-managed marine protected area (MPA) is. We did 3 dives in Napantao and then moved south to Pintuyan, where shallow muck and colourful reefs meet to create an incredible night diving experience: hunting blue-spotted maskrays, bobtail squids, cuttlefish and countless moray eels hunting around.

Whale shark in Sogod Bay, Southern Leyte

The next morning we had an early dive at Son-ok point (mushroom coral pipefish, soft corals, pygmy seahorses and spearing mantis) before getting ready to ditch the tanks, and snorkel with the whale sharks (Rhincodon typus). We have been working in Sogod Bay since 2012 working closely with the local government units of Pintuyan, San Ricardo and Lilo-an, where the whale sharks aggregate anytime between late October and May. The seasons are highlight variable as their presence there is dependent on the abundance of food. Whale sharks in Sogod Bay are quite loyal, with some returning after >10 decade since first identified (data facilitated by citizen scientists helping our work). This year the whale sharks were hanging around in Cogon and San Ricardo. We picked up the guides (Raul and Mark) from barangay Son-ok, together with 7 spotters: spotters here employ quite a unique strategy to find the spotted giants by sticking their heads in the water and literally ‘spot’ the spotty sharks! The spotters and the guides are members of a People’s Organisation called KASAKA. The group is responsible for the whale shark watching tourism operations. The wives of KASAKA members, engage in a different endeavour, by which they hand sew whale shark puffy toys each of which is a little bit different. Just like the real things. Their organisation is called Sea Breeze Women’s Association. We were also boarded by LAMAVE’s project leader Christine Legaspi and research assistant Connie Chapman, who are based in Pintuyan studying the whale sharks.

With the guides, spotters, LAMAVE crew and Sea Breeze women onboard, we travelled south in search of whale sharks. After about an hour of looking, I assisted by deploying a drone. Unfortunately this was of no match to the experienced eye of the KASAKA spotters, and before long, guests on chase boats are deployed, and whale sharks are sighted in the water. Not one, but six different whale sharks were in the general area in the space of about 1 hour that we were jumping in and out of the water. It was a fantastic experience and everyone got a good luck of the spotty giants, including some of the Siren crew. All six whale sharks had been previously been identified in Sogod Bay, with two of them new to this season (started November 2019).

John, one of the guests swims along side a whale shark in Sogod Bay, Southern Leyte

That afternoon we dived in Marayag, San Francisco, followed by a night dive at the Padre Burgos pier- arguably one of the best night dives in the Philippines. The next day we dived just south of Padre Burgos, ‘Medicare’, followed by two dives in Olly’s wall and ghost town in San Francisco back on the east side of Sogod Bay. For the night dive we went to ‘little Lembeh’ just north of Malitbog. Amazing night dive! Octopuses, cuttlefish, nudis, spider crabs, hairy squat lobster, painted frogfish. A very complete night dive though we failed to find a wonderpus! Next year shall be :)

Daniela, one of the guests admiring the coral in Limasawa, Southern Leyte

The following day we did 4 dives in Limasawa Island. This island is historical for hosting the first catholic mass in the Philippines when Magellan arrived in 1523. The diving on the east coast was incredible: schools of fish, giant barracuda, frogfish, endless hard and soft corals, fans. A wide-angle marvel! The night dive at the pier on the west coast of Limasawa was very complete also.

Green sea turtle in Balicasag Island, Bohol

The second-to-last day we moved west to ‘snake island’ between Pamilacan and Balicasag Islands. Jona was not keen as she’s terrified of snakes, however, the opportunity to dive somewhere new was hard to resist. Alas, full of snakes! Not only the yellow-lipped sea krait (Laticauda colubrina) that is more commonly encountered but many turtle-headed sea snakes (Emydocephalus annulatus). They wrapped themselves around soft corals so they were hard to spot. Visibility and current were difficult but worth getting up and close with these reptiles.

Balicasag Island, Bohol from the sky

After the early morning dive, we moved the Siren to Balicasag Island. Balicasag is a beautiful site with incredible biodiversity and abundance of fish. It is also an important foraging ground for green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas). These guys hang out in the shallows were seagrass is found and they forage there throughout the day. We did two dives starting in the shallows to collect photo-identification images of the turtles, and then we moved onto the wall were schools of jacks and mackerel covered your entire periphery. I was truly a marvellous spectacle to observe.

School of jacks in Balicasag Island, Bohol

Our last two dives were in Cabilao between Bohol and Cebu, with some of the most colourful reefs of the whole trip. Frogfishes, pygmy seahorses and turtles stole the show, yet a blue-spotted stingray and the colourful schools of fish also made for an impressive sight. The shallow reef top is also beautiful with soft and hard corals, seagrasses and the opportunistic turtle. A very colourful place!

Bill, one of the guests admiring the coral walls of Cabilao, Bohol

After the last two dives of the trip, we moved back to Mactan whilst the crew sorted everyone’s gear, and master Chef Boi prepared some amazing nibbles with cocktails to send us off. A red sunset just made the day and so we ended the trip with new and old friends and looking forward to the next diving adventure.

Gonzalo Araujo is an Executive Director for Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines, the largest independent non-profit dedicated to the conservation of marine megafauna and their habitats in the Philippines. This special Siren-LAMAVE trip supports LAMAVE’s marine conservation efforts by donating part of the proceeds of the trip. If you would like to join Gonzo and the LAMAVE team on a future Siren-LAMAVE special expedition, keep an eye out on our website or follow us on @lamaveproject or Gonzo on @gonzo_araujo on social media.