Anda — Bohol, the area around Dapdap

Anda · Philippines · Muck & macro · Wall

Dapdap

A sloping wall onto muck at 25 m, dived for nudibranchs

Area photo: Dagon Hoyohoy · CC BY 2.0

Dapdap is a muck dive with a wall attached. The reef slopes away and bottoms out on muck at about 25 m, and that bottom is where the dive happens: nudibranchs are the reliable find, along with the other small things that live on sand, and it is worked slowly behind a macro lens.

Where it is and how deep

Depth profile of Dapdap: typical dive to 25 m (to 82 ft) 18 m · Open Water30 m · Advanced40 m · Recreational limit25 mtypical dive
Depths on a shared scale to 40 m (130 ft); dashed lines mark common certification limits.

9.7271° N, 124.5472° EPublished position for this site.

The dive

The wall here slopes rather than drops, which makes it easy to descend along and easy to pick a depth on the way down. It ends on a muck bottom at about 25 m, and that bottom is the site: sand and rubble instead of coral, the kind of ground that gives up nothing at all until you slow down and start looking at it square metre by square metre.

Nudibranchs are what divers come back with, and there are plenty of them, along with the other small creatures scattered along the bottom. The photography is macro. The sensible plan is the usual muck one — get down, cover very little ground, and let the sloping wall carry you back up shallow at the end rather than ascending through open water.

Marine life and season

  • Nudibranchs
  • Macro critters
Month-by-month season rating for Dapdap
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
PrimePrimePrimePrimePrimeGoodFairFairFairGoodPrimePrime

Season follows Anda: Nov–Jun is the main season; the south-west monsoon and typhoons make Jul–Oct unreliable on this exposed coast.

Sources

  1. Dapdap dive site — Scubago (SSI)

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