Mactan & Olango · Philippines · Cave & cavern
Marigondon Cave
A 29 m roof, a 40 m floor, and a chamber full of flashlightfish
Area photo: ＤＡＶＩＤ · CC BY-SA 3.0
Marigondon Cave is the deep chamber on Mactan's dive coast, its roof at around 29 metres and its floor at about 40. The chamber is near ten metres across, with a small alcove beside the entry, and it holds a resident population of flashlightfish. Sidemount or a twinset is treated as a requirement here.
Where it is and how deep
10.2592° N, 123.9862° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The dive is the descent itself. You drop to a roof that sits at around 29 metres, with the floor of the chamber at about 40 below it, so the cave is entered deep and worked on a short clock. The chamber is near ten metres across, and there is a small alcove to one side of the entry where a team can gather and sort itself out before going in.
Inside, the chamber is full of flashlightfish — Anomalopidae, the family named for the bioluminescent organs set beneath their eyes. That is the reason divers come. The overhead and the depth set the rest: sidemount or a twinset is a must for diving here, so the cave is planned as a staged deep dive rather than as a single-tank look around.
Marine life and season
- Reef fish swarms
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Mactan & Olango: Mar–May, the hot dry season, is the usual window; the Jun–Nov rains cut visibility on the house reefs, and typhoon risk runs highest around Nov–Dec, as Typhoon Rai showed in December 2021.
Know before you go
- The chamber is a true overhead with its roof at 29 m, so sidemount or a twinset is treated as mandatory and the depth leaves little room for a slow exit.
Questions divers ask
How deep is Marigondon Cave?+
The chamber has its roof at around 29 metres and its floor at about 40, so the dive is planned as a deep profile rather than a recreational one, and sidemount or a twinset is treated as a must.
What do you see inside Marigondon Cave?+
The cave is full of flashlightfish — Anomalopidae, the family named for the bioluminescent organs located beneath their eyes. The chamber is near ten metres across, with a small alcove beside the entry.
Sources
- Marigondon Cave — Scubago
More dive sites in Mactan & Olango
Reef
Table corals from 3 m down to 40, and nudibranchs on all of it
Wall
A wall from 20 m to about 73 m off Olango's north-west side
Wall
A channel wall to 35 m with a current that runs hard
Sharks at 35 m off Olango's northern tip, hammerheads among them
A blue opening in the wall at 25–27 m, depending on the tide
Wreck
A ship at 50 m that a typhoon stood back upright
Reef
A wide shield reef with the wall starting at 5–7 m
A drop-off at 15 m running down to 50, off Olango's pier
Similar dives elsewhere
A guideline swim in the dark that exits onto a soft-coral wall
A limestone labyrinth holding the bones of turtles that never found the exit
A skylight hole lights the chamber at 12 metres
Fresh water over salt, and 38 degrees below the thermocline