Apo Reef · Philippines · Coral garden
Apo Island Southeast Corner
Coral gardens across the island's southern tip, 15 m to 40 m
Area photo: Wiki.mjmasangkay · CC BY-SA 4.0
The southern tip of Apo Island is dived for its coral gardens: a spread of soft and hard corals in a range of shapes and colours, on a site with a published range of 15 to 40 metres. It is the shallow, unhurried counterpart to the walls on the island's flanks, and the site to pick when the plan calls for a coral dive.
Also known as South East Corner.
Where it is and how deep
12.6520° N, 120.4130° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The dive covers the corner where the reef wraps the southern tip of the island. Coral cover is the point of it: soft and hard species across a range of shapes and colours, worked slowly at the shallow end of a site whose published range runs to 40 metres. There is no single feature to find, so the dive is planned as a wander over the coral with the depth chosen for bottom time rather than for anything deeper.
Because the interest is shallow, this is a long dive rather than a deep one, and the corner is a sensible pick for the last dive of a day that has already been spent on the island's walls. Keep buoyancy tight over the coral and use the reef top for the ascent; there is enough to look at above 15 metres that a safety stop passes without anyone watching a computer.
Marine life and season
- Pristine corals
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Off-season | Off-season | Off-season | Fair | Good | Prime |
Season follows Apo Reef: Nov–Jun is the season with Mar–May best; the south-west monsoon and typhoons close the reef entirely from July to September.
Questions divers ask
How deep is the Southeast Corner?+
The published range for the site is 15 to 40 metres, but the coral gardens that make the dive are at the shallow end, so most of the time is spent well above the maximum.
Sources
- Apo Reef dive sites — Pandan Island Dive Resort
More dive sites in Apo Reef
Wall
North-east wall dived from a 10 m coral plateau to 40 m
Wall
Sheer drop-off at the island's northern tip, 15 m to 40 m
Wall
The afternoon wall, and the island's bumphead parrotfish schools
The island's most reliable edge for grey reef and whitetip sharks
Similar dives elsewhere
Ghost pipefish, odd shrimps and nudibranchs in the coral
Temple, cabbage and mushroom coral in 15 m of water
Fusiliers and damsels wearing colours you would not expect
Reported as the world's largest aggregation of anemones