Apo Island

On April 25th we finished working with Brian and headed out to Apo Island, a small volcanic island about 35 minutes off the coast of Dauin, the main SCUBA town around Dumaguete. Our host - and sort of boss - Brian, suggested we go to Apo and stay with his friend, Mario, and help with an Environmental Science class Mario  has been running for local high school students in the summer months when they were out of school. We felt this would be a great opportunity to connect with the community and to also get some R&R.

Mario picked us up in his bangka boat,  which doubles as his dive boat, and chatted with us the whole 35 minutes across the strait. He's a very friendly and dynamic guy. A native of Apo, he runs his own dive shop and guesthouse, as well as having a prominent voice in the community meetings - pushing for a more environmentally friendly Apo Island. He says he does it all for fun, and it shows. We stayed at his guesthouse and were delighted by the relaxing atmosphere, the ease of booking dive trips with him or his Dive Master, Macmac and we savored the delicious, fresh food, often fresh fish, caught that day and prepared by Theresa, the aunt of Mario's wife, Mila. Mila helped run the guesthouse along with their daughter Carla and their son- we're not kidding here - KarlMarx, who happens to be an excellent guitarist (not bad for a dead communist.)

We dove or snorkeled in the mornings and then either worked with the highschoolers or explored the island in the afternoon. Apo Island is a notable success story in marine conservation. Back in the 1980s, the reefs surrounding the island were severely over-fished and the locals decided to impose a moratorium, which was not very popular at the time. It took six (very tough) years of no fishing in designated zones to see a change, but the fish came back and now they the richest fishing grounds in the area, exporting much of their catch to other markets. They have continued to protect parts of the island, currently, there are two marine sanctuaries.  All of the waters are hook-and-line fishing only and only the people of Apo are aloud to fish around it. These standards have made a huge impact on the health of the reef. There are far more fish on Apo's reefs than at reefs either without fishing restrictions or where the rules aren't being enforced.

 
Sorry about the color on this photo, it is a bit washed out but this was a purple sponge with a huge purple frog fish in it. Can you find the frogfish?
 
The diving is phenomenal -we saw huge schools of jacks, big groupers - an almost rarity - large tuna patrolling the waters, turtles, frogfish and much more. After seeing the damage and garbage on other reefs around Dumaguete, it was great to see such a success story out on tiny Apo Island.

On our final day (April 30) Brian and Renee came over with some friends to see the island and do some diving. It felt great to meet up with some friends and share the great diving with folks we knew. We headed back to Dumaguete with everyone and went out to dinner that night at Hayahay. It was a feast, and we all filled our bellies with fresh fish and crab and washed it all down with cold San Miguels. It was a great ending to our time in the Philippines - good food, good friends and great diving.