Tubbataha Reefs

I visited this WHS in Spring 2025 thanks to a special meet-up (9 pax) organised by Thomas Buechler on a liveaboard catamaran for 2 nights. The Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park is made up of Tubbataha Reef (South Atoll and North Atoll) and the smaller Jessie Beazley Reef, located in the middle of the Sulu Sea 150 kilometres southeast of Puerto Princesa. It lies at the apex of what is known as the Coral Triangle, a global centre of marine biodiversity. The natural park is a bird (also a Ramsar site) and marine sanctuary with a very high density of marine species, especially coral, with 72% of all coral genera in the world.

Shortly after departing from Puerto Princesa in the late afternoon in very dark skies and a light drizzle, the very calm seas sheltered by the nearby Palawan land became a bit choppy as we sailed into open seas for approximately 15 hours straight, causing slight seasickness to a few of us. Luckily it wasn't too bad and just before sunset a pod of dolphins lifted our spirits. The seasickness pills kicked in and helped those who took them and after dinner and a couple of beers, chatting on the most remote WHS and each other's missing WHS, we went to sleep in our cabins. As an aside, in the middle of the night our captain and crew decided to moor our catamaran for a while with the returning larger liveaboard ship for divers from Tubbataha for a …

Reasonable scuba divers will agree that, as far as the possibility of marine life encounter is concerned, luck is a constant factor, along with all other environmental conditions, as well the divers’ skill and general behaviour. “It’s not an aquarium down there after all,” is an easy but a necessary caveat. In that regard, I and my fellow divers thank ours lucky stars for the Tubbataha superlatives experience (dive safari in March 2025). 

However, to fully appreciate the site, it would be necessary to look back and stocktake decades of efforts from various stakeholders in Palawan - academe, fisherfolk communities, national and local government agencies, NGOs, international organisations, etc., whose efforts made Tubbataha currently a model for marine site conservation.

From the 70s to early 90s, local communities struggled with the declaration of the site as a strict “no-take zone,” and condemned concepts of heritage and conservation as anti-poor and useless. Years later, Tubbataha showed signs of recovery, commercial fish catch in waters outside the park increased, and created a new generation of conservation believers.

I had previously (for some reason) rated this as a five star visit but I have no clue idea why. Getting back to this now only because it's been a long time since the last review I corrected it. I didn't take a photo of the ranger station and my friend once sent me a video but it wasn't his either so the "copyright" (=bragrights?) aren't clear and in the end it's no big deal. Random underwater shot from the diving it is.

The only way to see this place is by taking a liveaboard into the reef area. It's going to take a a week to explore it and there isn't really much you can do about it. Even if there would be a shorter trip available then it's not worth it. You will need to soak up the full experience.

So I don't rate this as highly as expected for a natural and dive site. "Tubbataha is life" says their slogan and I got a t-shirt (hardly worn because it's too pretty) with the same, some environmental staff comes on board the first night and give you speech on how important the reefs are but in the end you hardly get to see any of the "special life" status. Yes, reefs are important but should I really feel this site is special because they protect it and the rest of the world is raping the underwater reefs and overfishing? Hmm, debatable. The underwater is thrive and …

We arrived aboard the Liveaboard Diveboat Nautica.Great diversity of marine life. Turtles, we saw Pilot whales,lemon sharks and thresher sharks, Manta rays huge shoals of unicorn surgeon fish. Great quantity of sea birds with blue spotted eggs. There is the remains of a ship that had ran aground. Great sunsets. We stayed for a week. Spectacular diving.

The only experience I have had with Tubbataha Reef is when

I grounded there with a 6000.tons cargo ship in 1973.

The reef was very hard and tore a large hole in my ship.

We had to unload some of the cargo out there and then

proceeded to Iloilo for repairs,