Coron in the Philippines island group of Palawan is known for many things: clear turquoise waters, towering limestone islands, Japanese wreck diving and awesome boat trips. This is what brought us to Coron. What I didn’t realize was that Coron had another hidden gem: the opportunity to dive or snorkel with dugongs.
The dugong is a close relative of the manatee, the main difference being that dugongs have dolphin like tails while manatees have rounded ones. They were also related to the Stellers sea cow, which is now extinct. The word dugong actually originated from the Philippine “Tagalog” language meaning “lady of the sea”. They are an endangered species and are very sensitive as they can only live in areas that have sea grass.
The dugongs are not actually in Coron at all, but rather in the far north of Busuanga, the island on which Coron town is situated. We happened, by chance, to have been booked by our tour company into a fantastic little resort called Cashew grove, in the north of Busuanga. At first we we unsure as to why the tour company had chosen this remote location, but when we saw the resort, and compared it to Coron town, we understood. The cashew grove is surrounded by cashews and has a few small chalets right next to their own private beach. It was heaven.
On our second day in Cashew grove, we had booked to do the dugong diving. We started at 8am on a cloudy morning, and relaxed on the beach waiting for our boat to pick us up. The waves were crashing in the distance and we were somewhat apprehensive when we were picked up in a tiny dingy. Luckily we made it to the waiting dive boat without getting too soaked. The dive boat was a typical Philippine “bangka” boat with outriggers to support it. Here we met friendly divers and snorkelers from Scotland, USA and Czech Republic, as well as DM Gerald and his crew.
We set out over the swells and eventually reached Aban Aban beach, where our dugong of choice lived. But first we picked up representatives of dugong conservation, there to collect their fee and make sure we didn’t mistreat the animal. We read a briefing telling us to keep 5m from the dugong (later reduced to 1m...), not block his path to the surface, never separate a cow and her calf, and not to touch.
We started spotting for the dugong, affectionately called “Bani” supposedly after the beach he lived at, but I liked to think of him as “Bunny”. Soon the crew saw him and sent a snorkel guide after him. We kitted up and prepared to swim in full dive gear to where he was. Once we reached the spot we descended about 7m and saw him pretty quickly. He was large, probably 2-2.5m, with a dolphin like tail, front fins and a very cute face. He had many scratches all over his body, apparently from territorial fights with other male dugongs. The males live alone and defend their territory fiercely.
They live only where they can find seagrass, and need to consume about 30kg per day! They are the only strictly vegetarian sea mammal. Bunny was chowing as much seagrass as he could using his fins to help, and kicking up a lot of dust, making the water very murky and the visibility pretty poor. I felt sorry for him as there really didn’t seem to be that much sea grass. Little golden trevally were hanging around him, hoping to gobble a stray morsel. He was generally completely unfazed by us, not scared at all, and focused on his eating.
Every 6 minutes or so, Bunny would ascend to the surface for a big gulp of air. This was the only opportunity the snorkelers got to see him, but at least it was pretty frequent. After his first ascent we lost him completely, and swam around aimlessly following Gerald for a while, thinking that was it. But we found him again and watched another three ascents and descents before Gerald asked us to come up. It was a short dive, only about 30 minutes but we felt it was enough.
Next we headed to Dimipak Island for some more diving, here the chances were lower to see a dugong, but there was a lot more to see. We did two dives, with lunch in between, and saw some amazing creatures, but no more dugongs. The highlights were: a cuttlefish swimming off into the distance; many jawfish popping their heads out of holes in the ground, showing off eggs in their mouths; at least 3 green turtles; a juvenile batfish (black, vertically elongated with bright orange all around the outer edge); so many different species of shrimp including a peacock mantis scuttling along the sea floor; a wriggling sea slug, nudibranchs; a tiny porcelain crab and an almost translucent frogfish! The eels were also awesome, we saw two morays and a ribbon eel, blue with a beautiful yellow head. We also saw two different species of pipefish, with brightly colored bands and looking like sea snakes. And lots of anemone fish to boot. In general they were fantastic dives and we were glad we got to do them as well as the dugong diving.
The dugong is a close relative of the manatee, the main difference being that dugongs have dolphin like tails while manatees have rounded ones. They were also related to the Stellers sea cow, which is now extinct. The word dugong actually originated from the Philippine “Tagalog” language meaning “lady of the sea”. They are an endangered species and are very sensitive as they can only live in areas that have sea grass.
The dugongs are not actually in Coron at all, but rather in the far north of Busuanga, the island on which Coron town is situated. We happened, by chance, to have been booked by our tour company into a fantastic little resort called Cashew grove, in the north of Busuanga. At first we we unsure as to why the tour company had chosen this remote location, but when we saw the resort, and compared it to Coron town, we understood. The cashew grove is surrounded by cashews and has a few small chalets right next to their own private beach. It was heaven.
We set out over the swells and eventually reached Aban Aban beach, where our dugong of choice lived. But first we picked up representatives of dugong conservation, there to collect their fee and make sure we didn’t mistreat the animal. We read a briefing telling us to keep 5m from the dugong (later reduced to 1m...), not block his path to the surface, never separate a cow and her calf, and not to touch.
We started spotting for the dugong, affectionately called “Bani” supposedly after the beach he lived at, but I liked to think of him as “Bunny”. Soon the crew saw him and sent a snorkel guide after him. We kitted up and prepared to swim in full dive gear to where he was. Once we reached the spot we descended about 7m and saw him pretty quickly. He was large, probably 2-2.5m, with a dolphin like tail, front fins and a very cute face. He had many scratches all over his body, apparently from territorial fights with other male dugongs. The males live alone and defend their territory fiercely.
They live only where they can find seagrass, and need to consume about 30kg per day! They are the only strictly vegetarian sea mammal. Bunny was chowing as much seagrass as he could using his fins to help, and kicking up a lot of dust, making the water very murky and the visibility pretty poor. I felt sorry for him as there really didn’t seem to be that much sea grass. Little golden trevally were hanging around him, hoping to gobble a stray morsel. He was generally completely unfazed by us, not scared at all, and focused on his eating.
Every 6 minutes or so, Bunny would ascend to the surface for a big gulp of air. This was the only opportunity the snorkelers got to see him, but at least it was pretty frequent. After his first ascent we lost him completely, and swam around aimlessly following Gerald for a while, thinking that was it. But we found him again and watched another three ascents and descents before Gerald asked us to come up. It was a short dive, only about 30 minutes but we felt it was enough.
Next we headed to Dimipak Island for some more diving, here the chances were lower to see a dugong, but there was a lot more to see. We did two dives, with lunch in between, and saw some amazing creatures, but no more dugongs. The highlights were: a cuttlefish swimming off into the distance; many jawfish popping their heads out of holes in the ground, showing off eggs in their mouths; at least 3 green turtles; a juvenile batfish (black, vertically elongated with bright orange all around the outer edge); so many different species of shrimp including a peacock mantis scuttling along the sea floor; a wriggling sea slug, nudibranchs; a tiny porcelain crab and an almost translucent frogfish! The eels were also awesome, we saw two morays and a ribbon eel, blue with a beautiful yellow head. We also saw two different species of pipefish, with brightly colored bands and looking like sea snakes. And lots of anemone fish to boot. In general they were fantastic dives and we were glad we got to do them as well as the dugong diving.
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