Romblon · Philippines · Pinnacle · Reef
Sunken Island
A coral-covered submerged island from 10 metres down to 30
Area photo: krokodiver · CC BY 2.0
A submerged island covered in corals, 30 to 40 minutes out from Romblon Town or Lonos. The top sits at 10 metres and the ground slopes down to 30, and the dive is a circuit of the structure looking for the many fish species, nudibranchs and cuttlefish that live on it rather than a run to the bottom.
Also known as CSI.
Where it is and how deep
12.6493° N, 122.2355° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The top of the island is at 10 metres, which makes the descent short and the orientation easy: you arrive on coral rather than in open blue, and the structure itself is the reference for the whole dive. From there the ground slopes down to 30 metres, so the usual shape of the dive is a circuit, down one side, around, and back up as the gas allows.
It is dived as a search rather than a tour. Many different fish species hold on the coral cover, and nudibranchs and cuttlefish are the finds worth slowing down for, which means the useful position is close to the structure. The 10-metre top is the advantage at the end: the shallow cap gives you somewhere to spend the last of the dive off-gassing without leaving the site.
Marine life and season
- Nudibranchs
- Octopus & cuttlefish
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime |
Season follows Romblon: Nov–Jun is the settled season; typhoons and the south-west monsoon make Jul–Oct unreliable for the boat crossing.
Sources
- Diving in the Philippines — Wikivoyage
More dive sites in Romblon
Channel & pass
Often-strong current turns the channel into a drift
Reef
Reef from two metres down to sand at twenty
Blue hole
A chimney from 5 m to an opening on the reef near 30 m
Fields of big gorgonians at the 35-metre end of the slope
Coral garden
Ghost pipefish, odd shrimps and nudibranchs in the coral
Coral garden
Anemones and coral formations on a reef that drops to 30 m
Sand slope
Giant clams scattered across the sand of a protected bay
Coral garden
A shallow coral canyon on the tip of a rocky islet
Similar dives elsewhere
Whitetips, blacktips and marble rays on an atoll pinnacle
Giant trevally patrolling three coral-covered pinnacles off Padar
A holed rock at the surface, a coral-covered pinnacle below
Cleaning stations on the summit, mantas on the flanks in season