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Scuba Diving in Calangaman Island, Cebu, the Philippines
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Dive Site: Nunez Shoal
Location: 11°5'41"N; 124°13'2"E (Near Calangaman Island)
Description: Reef / wall
Depth: 6 - 25 metres in shallows (20 - 82 feet), wall drops away into the depths
Visibility: 15 metres (50 feet)
Rating: ****
Calangaman Island is around a 2 hour boat ride to the east of Malapascua Island and offers some great wall dives. A few minutes boat ride from Calangaman is another sunken seamount known as Nunez Shoal. This reef top has coral heads, coral gardens and sloping sand gullies running from around 6 metres down to 25 metres before the vertical wall drops away into the depths. You can either be dropped by boat and cruise with the current, or if there is no current which was the case during our dives here, then explore the reef wall and meander around the coral gardens in the shallows on your way back to the boat anchor point. The reef wall has lovely outcrops and overhangs with feather and brittle stars of every imaginable colour. There were also the largest sea pens I have ever seen in deep reds. Huge stonefish and small morays inhabited the slopes at around 20 metres, with clownfish in bright red anemones darting out at us. Keep an eye out for the feisty titan triggerfish who were starting to nest when we were there in early May, in 25 metres of water. Sea slugs and tube worms had also made their homes here. There can be a current in the shallower part of the seamount so deploying a delayed SMB could be a good option during your safety stop, allowing the dive boat to come to you. Between dives you can explore the paradise island of Calangaman with its white sand beaches and long sandbank which stretches out into the azure blue waters.
Rik Vercoe, BSAC Advanced Instructor
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