Cabilao · Philippines · Wall · Coral garden · Cave & cavern
Chapel Point
Stacked table corals over a wall dropping to 50 m
Area photo: yuichiro anazawa · CC BY 3.0
Chapel Point, on Cabilao's west coast, pairs one of the best stands of pristine table coral in Bohol with a steep wall dropping to around 50 m below it. The shallows are the reason to dive it: broad table corals stacked over each other with caves and swim-throughs between them, and the wall underneath adds soft coral, gorgonian fans and a long list of small things.
Where it is and how deep
9.8710° N, 123.7587° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The shallow half is the point of the site. Hard coral covers the top in good condition and the table corals are the standout — broad plates stacked over one another with gaps, caves and short swim-throughs between them, dense enough that guides call it one of the best table-coral areas in the region. It is shallow, well lit and slow diving, and it is where most of a dive here should be spent.
Below it the ground gives way to a steep wall running down to about 50 m, covered in soft coral and hung with gorgonian sea fans. That is deeper than any recreational plan should follow, so the wall is a look rather than a destination: drop over the lip to the agreed depth, work along the face, then come back up onto the coral garden with most of your gas still in the tank.
The small stuff is on both levels. Small frogfish sit in the sponges and among the plates, and the site has an unusual number of nudibranch species through the hard coral. Sitting on the west coast in front of the resorts, it is one of the easiest sites on the island to get to and one of the most often dived — including as an afternoon tank when the boats are not going far.
Marine life and season
- Frogfish
- Nudibranchs
- Pristine corals
- Reef fish swarms
- Sea turtles
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime |
Season follows Cabilao: Dived year-round; Nov–Jun is the main season and the low season runs roughly May–Oct, when the south-west monsoon works the exposed sides.
Know before you go
- The wall drops to around 50 m with no shelf to stop on: fix a maximum before the dive and treat the deep face as a traverse, not a descent.
Questions divers ask
How deep is Chapel Point?+
The steep wall descends to roughly 50 m, past recreational limits. The table-coral shallows on top of the drop, where most of the dive happens, are far shallower and easy diving.
What is special about Chapel Point?+
The table corals. The shallow section holds one of the best stands of pristine table coral in the area — broad plates stacked with caves and swim-throughs between them — above a wall that adds soft coral and gorgonian fans.
Sources
- Cabilao Dive Sites — Sea Explorers Philippines
- Your Guide to Diving in Bohol — Dive The World
- Chapel Point — Scubago
- Cabilao Island — Wikipedia
More dive sites in Cabilao
Wall
A hundred metres of coral wall from 5 m to 60
Wall
An east-coast wall with a cave, and Cabilao's best night dive
Drift
A current-washed plateau at 25–30 m, pelagics one day, pygmies the next
Reef
A gentle drift over coral and sand to 18 m
Wall
Giant gorgonian fans on a wall from 5 m to 60
Wall
The corner where Cabilao's sharks are seen, wall to plateau to wall
Wall
Shallow muck over a coral wall that falls to 60 m
Frogfish, ghost pipefish and turtles on a 5-30 m coral wall
Similar dives elsewhere
A wall from 5 m, with the depth below it optional
An open-top cave in the northwest wall of a limestone island
Bumphead parrotfish schools and a wall of gorgonian sea fans
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Coral shelf, a wall to 40 m, and a 140 m cave at its foot