Dauin · Philippines · Artificial reef · Muck & macro · Night
Ginama-an
A decade-old tyre reef, grown in and dived after dark too
Photo: Dan Schofield · CC BY 4.0
Ginama-an is a large artificial reef of truck tyres off the Dauin coast, in place for more than a decade and by now completely inhabited by corals and sponges. The structures shelter frogfish, unusual shrimps and nudibranchs, a sea grass area alongside gives a second habitat to work through, and the site is also run as a night dive.
Also known as Ginama Point.
Where it is and how deep
No published position for this site — the map shows Dauin and its other sites; operators know the mooring.
The dive
The reef is the dive. Numerous truck tyres, down for more than a decade and completely inhabited by corals and sponges, sit in no more than 20 metres of water, and you work them slowly, looking into the growth rather than swimming past it. Sea Explorers rates the site as a hide-out for frogfish, unusual shrimps and colourful nudibranchs, and that is what a careful pass over the structures turns up.
A sea grass area lies nearby, and it is worth giving part of the dive to it and looking for other things there rather than treating it as the swim back. The site also works at night, which suits a shallow, structure-heavy bottom you can cover slowly with a torch; at Dauin those dusk and night dives sit in the ordinary daily schedule rather than counting as an extra trip.
Marine life and season
- Frogfish
- Nudibranchs
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Fair |
Season follows Dauin: Diveable year-round on the sheltered coast; December–February trade winds can raise chop on the shallow sand slopes.
Dive videos
Ginama Dive off of Dauin, Philippines · The Barrel Man on YouTube
Sources
- Dauin Dive Sites & Day Trips — Sea Explorers
- Scuba Diving in Dumaguete — Atlantis Dumaguete
Photo credits
- A peacock mantis shrimp with a green shell and orange-red legs sits on sand and rubble. by Dan Schofield, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In The Logbook
- Frogfish: species, behaviour and where to diveMacro & muck · 12 min read
- Why your ears hurt diving, and how to stop itBody & health · 8 min read
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Muck & macro
Muck and healthy reef on the sanctuary's southern edge
Blue-ringed octopus and wonderpus on the rubble
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A sunken jeepney and a Mustang on black sand
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