Moalboal and Pescador Island

The unusual thing about Moalboal is how close everything is to the beach. A dense shoal of sardines holds year-round over the reef edge at Panagsama, often within thirty or forty metres of shore, so you can swim out from the sand and be inside a wall of moving fish that blocks the light. Green turtles graze the same stretch. The reef itself drops off almost immediately into a wall that runs along the coast, which is why the town filled with dive shops. Pescador Island, a small limestone lump twenty minutes out by boat, has the best of the wall diving and a vertical chimney through the rock known as the Cathedral.

What you actually see

• The sardine run - a shoal of sardines held over the drop-off within swimming distance of the beach.
• The wall - the reef edge falling away almost from the shoreline, dived along the coast.
• Pescador Island - the offshore marine park with the Cathedral chimney through the rock.
• The turtles - green turtles feeding on the shallow reef along the Panagsama front.

When to go

November to May is the dry season with the calmest water and the best visibility. The sardines are present year-round but shift position along the reef, sometimes moving a few hundred metres, so ask at the dive shops on the day. Early morning has the fewest boats and the best light for snorkelling from the beach.

Honest expectations

Panagsama has almost no beach - it is a seawall with dive shops along it, and the sand is at White Beach a few kilometres north. The reef top has been damaged by years of fins and anchors. Boat traffic over the sardine shoal is heavy and a snorkeller needs to watch for propellers. Pescador gets crowded with dive groups by mid-morning.

Nearby

Kawasan Falls at Badian and the Oslob coast are both within about an hour.