Malapascua · Philippines · Reef · Muck & macro · Night
Chocolate Island
Blue-ringed octopus and frogfish among coral boulders
Area photo: Petter Lindgren · CC BY-SA 3.0
Chocolate Island is a small, uninhabited island passed on the boat crossing from Maya to Malapascua. Its shallow reef of soft corals, small rocky walls and hard-coral boulders is a macro dive, worked slowly for cephalopods, crustaceans, nudibranchs and frogfish, and it is dived by day and by night.
Where it is and how deep
11.3052° N, 124.0636° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The reef is a mix of soft corals, short rocky walls and boulders crusted in hard coral, all within 16 m. The dive is a slow search along the walls and among the boulders for blue-ringed octopus, cuttlefish and other cephalopods, mantis shrimp and other crustaceans, nudibranchs in numbers and frogfish.
Marine life and season
- Octopus & cuttlefish
- Nudibranchs
- Frogfish
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Malapascua: Threshers visit Kimud Shoal all year. March to May is calmest and clearest; October to January brings rough seas, green water and the most cancelled crossings.
Photos from Chocolate Island
Matt Kieffer · CC BY-SA 2.0
Matt Kieffer · CC BY-SA 2.0
Dive videos
CHOCOLATE ISLAND · Leon Marino Dive Center on YouTube
Sources
- Chocolate Island Malapascua — ScubaGo
- Malapascua Dive Sites — Thresher Shark Divers
- Malapascua Dive Sites — Evolution Diving Resort
Photo credits
- Two blue sea slugs with white-edged mantles and orange gill plumes crawl over a coral-crusted rock by Matt Kieffer, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- A black sea slug with thin blue lines and rounded knobs on its back rests on pale sand beside a rock by Matt Kieffer, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
More dive sites in Malapascua
Reef
Reef, mini wall and coral garden from 12 m down to 30 m
Coral garden
A gentle coral slope from 5 to 20 m inside a protected area
Pinnacle
A 20 m-wide coral pinnacle topping out at 5 m
Pinnacle
A rocky pinnacle from 14 m to 34 m, dived on tide changes
Wreck
A 1988 ferry wreck lying on her starboard side at 33 m
A 5 to 13 m coral and seagrass slope off the resort beach
A 30 m swim-through tunnel at 10 m with sharks resting inside
Wreck
A wreck shallow enough to be someone's first ever dive
Similar dives elsewhere
Reef
Secret Garden
Siargao · Philippines
A resident pink frogfish on three linked reefs near Naked Island
Mandarinfish dancing at dusk among black sea urchin spines
Reef
Preston Shoal
Kota Belud · Malaysia
Hairy frogfish hiding on the sand of a shallow shoal
Mandarinfish leave the fire coral here at dusk