Manila Channel

Vibrant drift dive over coral walls and sandy bottoms.

Boat Access
18m Avg Depth
23m Max Depth

About this dive site

This dive site offers a vibrant underwater experience starting at a depth of 5 meters. The initial area features a beautiful, stony hard coral reef teeming with small fish like antheas, butterflyfish, and sergeant majors. The reef gradually slopes down to a sandy bottom at approximately 18 meters. Divers can explore the reef's contour, utilizing flood currents for drifting into a channel – an option is also available during ebbing tides. Walls covered in 'potato coral’ provide habitat for large groupers and are further adorned with purple gorgonian sea fans and green tree corals. Venturing out from these walls into the channel reveals large barrel sponges and long whip corals, supporting a community of commensal shrimps. The sandy bottom is abundant with fire urchins, mushroom corals, cuttlefish (including flamboyant varieties), lionfish, scorpionfish, and occasionally mantis shrimp. Overhangs often host nudibranchs and giant frogfish. This site presents a diverse ecosystem suitable for experienced divers comfortable navigating currents.

DivingFreedivingSnorkeling

Site Ratings

Big Marine Life Good
Macro Marine Life Excellent
Landscape Quality Excellent
Water Visibility Very Good Viz

Plan Your Visit

drift divecoral reefwall divemacro photographystrong currentsadvanced onlywide angle

Marine Life

  • Mantis Shrimp Mantis Shrimp
  • Flamboyant Cuttlefish Flamboyant Cuttlefish
  • Scorpionfish Scorpionfish
  • Giant Frogfish Giant Frogfish
  • Lyretail Anthias Lyretail Anthias
  • Common Lionfish Common Lionfish
  • Fire Urchin Fire Urchin
  • Whip Coral Whip Coral
  • Gorgonian Gorgonian
  • Butterflyfish Butterflyfish
  • Shrimp Shrimp
  • Coral Coral
  • Soft Coral Soft Coral
  • Nudibranch Nudibranch
  • Grouper Grouper
  • Australian Giant Cuttlefish Australian Giant Cuttlefish
  • Sponge Sponge
  • Sergeant Major Sergeant Major

Things to Note

Difficulty:

Advanced

Features strong, variable currents requiring experience and good navigation.

Hazards:
currentmarine lifeboat traffic
Current Strength:

Variable

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