Sogod Bay
Added to website: 29 November 2003
For as long as she can remember, Lina Moritt knew it was summer when the kaliki-tikis gathered at the base of lighthouse in the sleepy town of Liloan where she grew up. Boys would jump on the backs of these gigantic, spotted, gentle creatures and go for a short ride as the whalesharks vaccuumed the surface for their meal of plankton.
As a young lady she moved to Manila where she met and married Peter. They moved to Australia where Peter was originally from and raised a family. Peter was a keen diver and would regale his wife about his dive adventures between his day job as an economist. He told her about the mantas, the giant groupers and about Ningaloo reef, where divers would flock to from all over the world, pay an arm and a leg just to swim with the whalesharks. His wife laughed and said that they should just go visit her hometown and he could have his fill of whalesharks.
Disbelieving, he took an extended leave to investigate his wife’s tall tale. Sure enough they were there! They appeared along the coast of Liloan from December to May , close to the river mouths that emptied into the sea where the convergence of fresh and seawater resulted in plankton and algal blooms that formed the delectable buffet for the kaliki-tikis.
As luck would have it, Peter was introduced to a young man, Rio Cahambing, whose job it was to set up Fish Sanctuaries around Sogod Bay in a bid to improve the fish catch of the local communities. Rio showed him the areas he had surveyed during the course of his duties and Peter realized they had stumbled on a prized find—not only did the area host the whalesharks, the bay also hid walls and reefs that could make underwater photographers swoon with delight!
Seizing an opportunity that was pounding on his door, Peter returned to Australia , packed up his family and set up a dive resort in Padre Burgos, Southern Leyte . I made arrangements to visit during the X’mas into New Years holiday week and when we arrived, the Northeast wind was blowing in full force. Peering out my window when I woke up the next morning, I was quite discouraged until I bumped into Peter merrily preparing for a full day of diving in Limasawa Island.
He assured me that our dive area would be sheltered and indeed my skepticsm faded away as we pulled up the azure waters of Zach’s Cove. Intact fields of both young and mature table and staghorn coral greeted my eyes. Purple Anthias and humbug Dascylus populated the pastel colors of the baby coral heads with the vibrant parrotfishes bullying their way in search of their next meal.
Dropping off into the wall, gorgonians and seafans provided the backdrop for some hastily squeezed shots of diver silouhettes. In the deep, a grand staircase of orange seafans emerged while a giant Napoleon wrasse weaved it’s way out of our path.
The next day we motored across the bay to the Napantaw Fish Sanctuary –also home to Rio’s Wall. 2 dives are needed to fully appreciate this site. The top of the reef is full of both soft and hard coral filled with colorful reef fishes, juvenile tridacna clams with electric blue smiling lips. A series of boulders that break the surface are coated in a profusion of soft yellow and maroon corals while purple sponges cover whatever space is left.
Gliding past the teeming reef I descended along a wall that is chock full of gorgonians, pink, purple and magenta dendronepthya corals, white seafans, whip coral and a forest of fluorescent black coral bushes. Intact green coral trees hide bright blue spotted red coral groupers. The deeper portion is inhabited by regal, emperor, yellow mask and 6 banded angelfishes. Long after I’ve shot my last frame, I swam off the wall to marvel at this creation of nature.
Motoring up the coast to Liloan, we passed tall hills plastered with coconut trees reaching up to the clear blue sky. As we neared the lighthouse, the diveboat turned into the channel. Liloan is a local word for whirlpool or where the waters circle and meet and it was aptly named. We dropped into the water in a gentle cove and as we settled into the channel, the current picked and swept us rapidly along a wall, again covered by pink seafans, yellow soft coral and more dendronephtya corals. The uneven bottom provided some respite from the rampaging water and we were able to see the juvenile fishes the site was famous for. Pinnate batfish, young angelfishes and their mamas sheltered in the recesses of the wall. A real blast of a dive, tight buoyancy control and a trim profile is a must !
Closer to home and actually part of the house reef when the current is right is the Max Climax wall. What I thought was another ho-hum house reef turned out to be a healthy slope that dropped off sharply at around 20 meters into a specatcular dive that was a tug of war between pelagics and schools of surgeon fishes in the blue water or the fan and black tree corals that grew in profusion at the edge of the reef. In the shallows, expect lots of anemones with their resident clownfishes while soft corals hide box and trunkfishes.
A new find is Picketts Plunge. Only 10 minutes north or the resort, it is named after a friend whose house is almost directly opposite this divesite. Best dived in the early morning, it is literally an anchorline plunge to the top of the mound at 27 meters. Groupers, pelagics and surgeonfish are prolific while the reef itself is host to whip, fan and gorgonian corals.
After 2 or 3 dives, we headed north of Liloan and as we approached the cove where one of the small rivers emptied into the sea, a tell -tale dorsal fin broke the surface followed by a very spotted tail! Everyone grabbed their fins and snorkels and slipped as quietly as they could into the water.
Ooohs and aaahs turned to gasps of delight as the majestic creature turned towards the snorkelers with it’s huge mouth agape! It submerged and disappeared and proceeded to play hide and seek with us for the better part of 2 hours. Another fin broke the surface and we realized that we were playing with 2 whalesharks, one 10 meter adult and the other, a juvenile that was 6 meters long!
Clambering back up on our dive boat, I thanked King Neptune that the province had a environmentally oriented and pro-active Governor by the name of Rosette Lerias. This active and tough lady makes sure that the conservation laws designed to protect the country’s marine and wildlife is strictly enforced in her domain. As a result, Sogod Bay is one of the few areas where dynamite and cyanide fishing is unheard of and is justly emerging as the newest dive destination of the Philippines.
By Yvette Lee
Asian Diver, 2003
