As the effects of climate change continue to intensify around the world, we are finding ourselves doing more "climate change travel," where we prioritize visiting the landscapes that are not likely to exist in their current state in the near future.
Coral reefs are big one in this category and they are having a rough go of things at the moment. Ocean temperatures in 2023-2024 have been the hottest on record. And not by a small margin. Yes, El Niño plays a part in that, but the temperatures are beyond the usual El Niño blip...nearly 2 degrees F warmer in 2024 compared to the baseline. High ocean temperatures influence everything from storm severity, heat waves, ocean circulation, and, of course, the plants and animals living in the ocean. Current estimates put 50% of the world's coral reefs experiencing moderate to severe bleaching this year alone. After each bleaching event, some corals are able to recover. As bleaching events become more frequent and extreme, however, corals in many places do not recover, leading to a whole suite of cascading ecological, economic, and social effects.
Amidst that depressing background, we've been thinking about a dive trip to the coral triangle for awhile. The coral triangle - the most diverse marine ecosystem on the planet - is in the western Pacific and extends roughly from the Philippines in the north, Malaysia to the west, and the Solomon Islands to the east. Within this vast area, there is a lot of variability in the quality of the reefs due to human activities in the ocean and on land. Over 2,500 marine protected areas (MPAs) have been established throughout the region to try to preserve these biodiversity hotspots. Enforcement of no-take regulations is notoriously difficult in MPAs, particularly when they are established in remote areas and funding is limited. These unenforced areas are often referred to as "paper parks" that tend to see little benefit of the MPA designation.
Tubbataha Reef is the largest MPA in the Philippines and was first given protected status in 1988. Because the reefs are 150 miles away from the nearest inhabited island, the Philippine government committed very early to a system of robust surveillance and enforcement. Tubbataha is now one of the best protected no-take MPAs in the world, enforced by rangers living on the remote atoll throughout the year. Even tourism is tightly controlled there. Dive boats are only allowed in the area from mid-March through mid-June and concessions have only been given to ~15 boats. All of these details - and the ability to check another UNESCO World Heritage Site off our list - influenced our decision to choose Tubbataha as our destination.
The limited access made getting there a challenge. With NOAA predicting a moderate to strong El Niño for 2023, we had hoped to make the trip in spring 2023 before the effects of increased ocean temperature hit the reef. That was not to be, as I soon learned, because every trip was fully booked six months in advance. It would have been prudent to book a 2024 trip at that point, but we were concerned about spending a lot of money to see a bleached reef. So I watched as coral bleaching monitoring reports started coming out in late summer 2023 and started to be hopeful that the reef would still be in good shape in spring 2024. We managed to secure one of a few remaining spaces on a live aboard dive boat eight months before our intended departure.
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| Tubbataha Reef |
It is a long flight to the Philippines, so we planned to do some additional travel for a few days on either side of the dive trip to explore Palawan Island. Palawan is the western-most island in the archipelago of over 7,000 islands and one of the quieter tourist spots in the Philippines. We started in the north in El Nido and the Bacuit Peninsula, a beautiful coastal area with limestone karst cliffs on land and pinnacles rising out of the ocean. We spent much of our time in El Nido on or in the water to try to stay cool. Two weeks before our trip, a heat dome settled over Southeast Asia, sending the heat index to ~110 degrees F every day. Even by Filipino standards, it was hot! We fortunately had air conditioning at our lodging to help us adjust, but being outside required cooling opportunities.
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Limestone cliff rising above El Nido, so named for the nests
(nido in Spanish) birds build in the cliffs |
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El Nido |
We embarked on a lovely day-long tour around some of the karst islands off the coast of El Nido, snorkeling or kayaking at every stop. Other than the dive boat, every boat we stepped onto in Palawan was a traditional fishing boat called a bangka. It consists of a very narrow hull for people with two outstretched spider leg-like outriggers for balance. We were being cautious about getting sick before our dive trip so hired a private boat, but we were far from alone out there. The island tours are very popular in El Nido so the bay in front of town is packed solid with them at the end of the day. It was mayhem as they tried to maneuver around each other with those wide outriggers to pick up or drop off passengers.
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| Traditional bangka boats |
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Lunch and snorkeling stop
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Kayaking into Big Lagoon with ALL the people |
The snorkeling around El Nido was not pristine but plenty interesting. The water was very warm, likely in the low 90s in some areas. There were pockets of water that were warmer than outer body temperature...not a feeling I enjoy in the ocean. We saw lots of small reef fish, sea stars (including a couple crown of thorns [thumbs down]), nudibranchs, a green sea turtle, and lots of soft and hard coral. Because we were snorkeling in pretty shallow water, the species we saw were quite different than those we saw at Tubbataha, so it was a nice contrast.
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| blue linckia sea star |
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Anemone and anemone fish
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From El Nido, we headed south, crossing from the west coast to the east coast and back to the west to the small town of Sabang. Our driver was seemingly training for the Grand Prix, but we arrived safely, in record time, and got to see a huge swath of Palawan countryside as it raced by. Crossing over the mountains near Sabang, we got our first rain of the trip. The following day we had an epic thunderstorm that we fortunately got to watch from the shelter of our lovely accommodation in the hills above the town.
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| The view from our breakfast table in Sabang |
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| Dormant rice paddies that will be filled with water once the monsoons arrive |
Sabang is famous for one of the "new" seven natural wonders of the world, the longest navigable underground river. The river runs 8 km (5 miles) through a cave system, the first 1.5 km of which is accessible to tourists via small, paddled bangka. Similar to El Nido, the underground river tour is a massive tourist activity that accommodates upwards of 600 people a day by our estimate, mostly people making a day trip from Puerto Princesa. We were fortunate to be one of the first boats out in the morning, which gave us a bit of distance from the full chaos.
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| Bangka for transport from Sabang to the cave |
To protect the bats, swallows, and other animals that use the cave, every passenger is given an audio guide and headphones and the tour guide is the only one with a light. As our guide paddled us through the cave, he shined his light on the features being described in the audio recording with perfect timing, suggesting how many times he must have paddled that boat through the cave (he wasn't listening to anything). The part of the cave we could access had high ceilings and many large stalactite and stalagmite formations throughout. Listening to the bats and swallows echolocate and watching them dive for bugs were the best parts of the experience, in my opinion. As with every other cave we've visited, we assumed it would be cooler inside than out and were excited to have a short reprieve from the heat. That turned out not to be the case at all; the temperature was almost identical and we felt a bit cheated. For such a small town that mostly caters to day tourists, we had some of the best food of our trip in Sabang and learned a lot about the hospitality industry in the Philippines.
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| Bangka for the cave (opening to cave on the far side) |
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| The helmets were mostly for guano protection |
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| Entrance to the Underground River |
From Sabang, we finally made our way to Puerto Princesa, the jumping off point for our dive trip. We boarded the Stella Maris in the early afternoon and got ourselves and all our gear situated before departing for the reef in the evening with 19 other guests and ~20 crew. The boat steamed all night and arrived at our first dive site at 5:30 am. Our schedule for the next five days was essentially: wake up (5:30), dive (6:15), eat breakfast (7:30), dive (9:30), eat lunch (11:30), dive (13:30), eat snack (15:00), dive (16:30), eat dinner (19:00), sleep (21:00). We did 19 dives in five days, with over 15 hours of underwater time. It was magical.
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| Stella Maris Explorer |
Hands down, Tubbataha is the healthiest reef either of us have ever seen. There is coral for days, more reef fish than you can count, and an incredible amount of biodiversity. It was overwhelming, actually. Every place you looked there was something interesting to see. Most of the dives were wall dives with a bit of current, so sometimes things were going by fairly quickly, adding to the sensory onslaught. A whale shark was the pelagic highlight of the trip, for sure, but the soft coral and smaller fauna were incredible.
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| A giant barrel sponge with Pete for scale |
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| Green sea turtle |
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| This is the extent of bleaching that we saw - just the tips so far |
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| Big school of trevally |
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| Anemone and anemone fish |
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| Barracuda |
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| Granulated sea star |
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| So many neat sponges in all shapes and sizes |
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| Sea fans were everywhere |
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| Epiphytes completely covering a barrel sponge (opening) |
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| Wall colors and moray eel |
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| Spot the small nudibranch and so many other species in a small space |
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| Lots of textures and coral growth forms on the reef |
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| Visit to the ranger station where all the guards live |
My photos don't really do the reef justice. Pete posted a couple of videos here and here that will give you a better sense of the life on the reef and a typical dive in Tubbataha.
We had a couple days in Puerto Princesa after our dives to decompress before we could fly safely. It was still wicked hot and Pete came down with a cold the day we got off the boat. It was a bummer that he got sick, but he was so happy he got it after we had finished diving. We ventured out for pho at one of the many chaolong houses established by Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s, got a tour of the Palawan Heritage Center, and tried our hand at navigating the jeepney/multi-bus transport system to check out a crocodile farm 12 km from the city center. While Pete convalesced in our cool room, I explored the town a bit more, visiting the cathedral, old market, and baywalk.
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| Puerto Princesa's peacock mascot |
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| colorful produce stand at the old market |
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| Tucked away entrance to the Palawan Heritage Center |
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| Immaculate Conception Cathedral |
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| foreign country electricity systems are fascinating |
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| Jeepney/multicab (photo looks roomier than they are) |
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| Saltwater crocs at the Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center |
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| Bangka along with Baywalk |
Finally, we arrived in Manila for a short stint before our flight home. To reduce our time in Manila traffic and see many of the interesting historical sites, we stayed in the Intramuros, the site of the fortress established by the Spanish in the late 1500s when they took control of the Philippines. The area was a stronghold from the 1500s to WWII, so there is a lot of history packed into a small area. My grandfather was stationed at the air force base just north of Manila during WWII, so I often found myself wondering if there were any sights that we both saw, albeit 80 years apart.
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| Very much an old town feel to the Intramuros |
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| The Spanish colonial architecture was restored after WWII |
San Agustin Church was the only building left standing in the Intramuros after the Battle of Manila in the final days of WWII. It was built in the late 1500s and is the oldest church in the Philippines and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This church faired earthquakes and bombs much better than the nearby roman-style cathedral, which has been rebuilt eight times since the 1500s. The inside of both churches was so hot that we were not able to linger very long.
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| St. Agustin Church |
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| Manila Cathedral from our breakfast spot |
Fort Santiago is on the far end of the Intramuros at the entrance to the very industrial Pasig River. The Fort was the stronghold of the Spanish and then used as a POW camp by the Japanese. Part of the site has been turned into a museum to commemorate the life of José Rizal, largely credited (possibly incorrectly) with forming the national identify of the Filipino people. He was executed for founding a political movement that challenged the Spanish rule, which only served to increase his popularity.
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| Fort Santiago |
Earlier in the day while Pete was resting, I wondered along the walls of the Intramuros and to Rizal Park, a large urban park built around the location where Rizal was killed. A lot of people were taking refuge in the shady areas of the park to try to escape the midday heat. I braved the sun for a few blocks to visit the Natural History Museum, with its interesting architecture and slightly air conditioned interior. Walking around in Manila made me further realize the importance of the work my team is doing in California to bring more greening to cities to reduce the urban heat island effect, amongst other benefits. It was great to see so much greenery in a city as big as Manila that was providing a bit of relief from the unrelenting heat.
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| Walls surrounding the Intramuros |
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| Chinese garden in Rizal Park |
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| Natural History museum |
All in all, a lovely trip with a lot of variety in two weeks. It was a little difficult to leave without having had much of an opportunity to explore the vast tracts of tropical forests and see some of the endemic critters, large and small. The tourism infrastructure does not really seem to exist on land in the same way it does on the ocean, at least in the places we visited. I suppose that is inadvertently helping to protect the forests, so I will temper my sadness.
