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| Yes, Thresher Sharks are currently regulars in Puerto Galera, hoping they would stay beyond the cold water season which lasts till early April |
Persistent whispers of Thresher Shark sightings around the Verde Island passage has been discussed within Philippine diving circles for years, but pinpointing the exact location where they may be found regularly was quite tricky. There were numerous posts on Facebook since 2013 of Thresher Shark sightings from Puerto Galera dive operators but it was only in February 2019 that there were Thresher Shark encounters daily being posted by mainly Chinese tourist divers from the area.
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| I took my dive gear and UW camera on a motorbike via Batangas Pier to Calapan Port |
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| Fast Cat was clean, modern and secure, Motorbike Ferry Cost, P1,100 |
Wanting to see how true these posts were, I went online,, grabbed myself a ticket via
Fast Cat ferry , left Manila Monday, March 4 at 3am to get to Batangas Pier by 5am, departed to Calpan Mindoro by 6am and after a 45km scenic ride full of wonderful twisty roads amidst coastal views, found myself in my friend and dive buddy John Dunlap's home in Puerto Galera by 10am. (total motorbike travel Manila to Puerto Galera, 7 hours, including Ferry)
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| after a 30km+/- ride from Calapan Port, I find myself at Tamaraw Falls which is a stones throw away from Sabang |
Me and my friend John started diving on Tuesday and John scheduled our dives with Cap't Gregg's dive center which has been operating in the area for several decades now. We planned for an early morning dive but initially had the obstacle of our dive boat stuck in the shallows due to the low tide. We were out by 0830 instead our supposed 0700 dive.
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Sabang reef at 7am, low tide make
it difficult to dive early mornings |
On our very first run, we cruised along the dive site Kilima steps near Canyons where 15 minutes into a dive, a huge Thresher Shark came gliding out of nowhere at a shallow 17M. This was a great sign and was super happy to experience the encounter as I did not need to head out back to Malapascua to see one. It went as close as 15 feet during our first encounter and made three rounds before saying goodbye, and yes, this was in Puerto Galera.
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| My First Thresher Shark from PUERTO GALERA, woohoo, on a full frame dslr and 15mm fisheye. They were there obviously to get cleaned by the reef fish |
After surfacing, there were approximately 15 dive boats in the site which made us decide to just skip the 11am dive and make another go for the Threshers at around 7am sharp to avoid diver traffic.
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| Second Dive Day, Early morning dives yielded more skittish sharks |
On Wednesday, we finally got out at seven and we had the site all to ourselves. While John usually goes deep to around at least 30m, everyone else including me hovered at around the 22M area. For some reason, we didn't see any sharks at the time but John shared there was a huge one circling around us from his vantage point of 28M. We did have lots of close encounters during our second dive at 10am...
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| Our second dive with probably around at least a hundred divers in the site had more Threshers, John's shot of me at 25M |
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| Pretty much how it looked like at 25 meters, 4 out of 5 dives, John shoots |
Beyond Thresher Sharks, we saw the usual regulars in Galera as banded Sea Kraits and reef Octopus were always found en route to our safety stops but more interesting was the abundance of sea turtles in the area. We managed to see at least two in every dive at Kilima Steps which made for a nice post Thresher, turtle photo fiesta.
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| Too many turtles at the side with Threshers, makes for a much different dive vs Malapascua where you hardly find sea turtles |
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| buddy Photographer John Dunlop having fun |
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| En route to our safety stops, we were treated with schools of anthias playing over colourful reefs |
For three days, I've been trying to get the Thresher Sharks of Puerto Galera on a fisheye and finally getting grounded by reality, a ten foot distance would be better using a 24mm lens... so John offered his G1X , a compact with a range close to what was on my mind and finally got a few good shots.
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Using a G1X at 26M, visibility also became a bit better on my final dive with the Thresher
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After getting some decent shots, I decided to do a few more rounds at Sabang and White Beach via motorbike prior heading back to Batangas Pier via Balatero Port (Just 5km from Sabang vs the 45km ride to Calapan port) using Atienza Shipping lines, definitely a more spartan experience versus fast cat, but a quick 1 hour and 30 minute transfer didn't matter what your ferry was if cutting time getting back to port is your priority.
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| All my Dive gear and UW Camera on my Versys 650 |
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| Balatero Port to Batangas Pier with Motorbike above 400cc costs P900+ P65 terminal fee, around P145 cheaper vs Calapan-Batangas plus only 6km from Sabang. |
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| Homeward bound, Thank you Puerto Galrera |
and the customary trip video
Final Thoughts
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| ©MWWP ©Steve De Neef |
The Thresher Sharks in Puerto Galera have always been there for decades. This is actually probably one of the sites where fishermen get to fish out and sell them in the markets of Batangas. With a steady influx of tourism, while not really ideal for the Sharks, I'd rather see that over fishermen trying to fish out Thresher Sharks.
It remains to be seen though how long the Thresher Sharks of Galera will stay in the shallows. they are usually 40-50m deep dwelling sharks and the cold water might have been getting them in the shallows. Hoping though if there are more tourists, (lesser evil), we will have more eyes on the ocean and we get to protect the Thresher Sharks in Puerto Galera. I'm sure we all want this.
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| Puerto Galera via Motorbike |
2 Komentar
Awesome trip report ��
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