[vimeo]51227972[/vimeo]
This short film includes some of the highlights from a livaboard trip through the Visayas followed by a shore based week in Dauin outside Dumaguete, Negros Island, Philippines.
The dive sites varied from coral walls to pristine reefs, from bare deeply shelving volcanic sand prairies to shallow sea grass meadows. There was little large pelagic action presumably due to intensive fishing however a diversion to Oslob, Cebu Island gave us the opportunity to snorkel with whale sharks that the local fishing community feed to attract them into shore. I understand that when this first started some years ago it was something of a circus but it certainly seems to have now become very well organised and gave our group of 7 an uninterrupted hour with six to eight of these magnificent fish..
The range of small to macro size creatures was varied and provided some excellent photographic opportunities especially on dives around Apo Island categorised as a marine sanctuary. Coastal dives out of Dauin were predominantly over volcanic sand, some with escaping hot gas and alive with unusual livestock. We encountered many frogfish varying in both size and colour but missed out on the sought after hairy version!
Although arguably lacking in pelagics as stated above this area of the Philippines makes for a great dive trip if you like macro and the climate, ease of travel and above all the friendly outgoing people.
Video camera Panasonic HDC-SD800
Housing Seapro custom SP5
Port Optolite (Ivanoff) lens port
Original footage 1080p 50fps
Vimeo footage Mpeg4 25fps
Edit Pinnacle Studio 14 Ultimate
