The Coral Triangle is a rough triangular area that starts with the Philippines in the north and runs southwest along the east coast of Borneo where it then follows the the southern chain of islands in Indonesia to the Solomon islands where it then heads north west up the coast of Papua New Guinea back to the Philippines. What's the significance of this obscure triangular shape that is really more blob than triangle? Within this imaginary boundary lies what marine biologists refer to as the global epicenter of marine biodiversity. This area only occupies 1.6% of the world's oceans but it holds 76% of all known coral species. Basically what this translates to is hyper-dense and diverse reefs which is home to thousands of different marine creatures that range from tiny nudibranchs, six of the seven species of sea turtle, both species of manta ray, lakes full of stingless jellyfish, shoals of fish, and everyones bucket list animal—the whale shark. What does all of this translate to? A seemingly endless supply of predictably epic snorkeling! Even though the Coral Triangle area occupies less than two percent of the worlds oceans, it is still a massive area and literally full of islands. Indonesia alone has over seventeen thousand and the Philippines has nearly eight thousand. I suppose technically you just just pick a point at random within this magical blobby triangle in the tropics and have a pretty good chance of the snorkeling being awesome, but we wouldn't recommend that. There are some destinations which may be better for divers as the reef and marine life start a bit deeper, while there are others areas which are really more suitable for snorkeling because the reefs and marine are quite literally at the surface. Here's a quick break down of areas we
The Coral Triangle is a rough triangular area that starts with the Philippines in the north and runs southwest along the east coast of Borneo where it then follows the the southern chain of islands in Indonesia to the Solomon islands where it then heads north west up the coast of Papua New Guinea back
The Philippine's unique location in the heart of the Coral Triangle makes it one of the world's premiere snorkeling destinations. Much like Indonesia, the Philippines hold some of the world's most bio diverse and pristine reefs, vast quantities of reef fish and larger marine species like sea turtles and whale sharks. With 7,641 islands to choose from in the Philippines it can be a daunting task of choosing the right one to visit. To save you a bit of a headache we've taken on the task of narrowing down the destinations to the three we feel offer the best balance between travel logistics, the resorts, and of course the snorkeling. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of visiting the Philippines, here a little run down of what you're missing or should expect on a Snorkel Venture trip to the Philippines. The Snorkeling Around Moalboal-Cebu Island Moalboal is typically our fist stop on our current Philippines itinerary and it's reefs are on the doorstep of the resort. Moalboal is a small town on the southern side of Cebu, and given the islands elongated shape the reef that fringes it just continues on and on and on. In the shallowest portions of the reef you'll find vast sea grass and sargasum seaweed beds where strange little critters like pipe fish and file fish hide among the aquatic vegetation. When the water gets to be about three feet deep the sea grass tapers off and you'll find yourself amongst the fields of hard coral and sponges. The reefs are home to many different marine species from the famous lion fish, a number of species of clown fish, sea turtles, sea snakes, and a rainbow of colorful reef fish that look like multi colored glitter suspended in the water column.
The Philippine’s unique location in the heart of the Coral Triangle makes it one of the world’s premiere snorkeling destinations. Much like Indonesia, the Philippines hold some of the world’s most bio diverse and pristine reefs, vast quantities of reef fish and larger marine species like sea turtles and whale sharks. With 7,641 islands to
Choosing a destination to snorkel in Indonesia can be confusing, and with over 17,000 islands knowing which one is best is no easy feat. To make things even more confusing, certain snorkeling locations, such as Raja Ampat, are broken up into sub-regions. If you've ever looked into a snorkeling trip through Raja Ampat you've probably noticed that it's broken up into either cardinal locations like “the north, or “the south” or into areas knows as the Dampier Straight and Misool. Just when you thought you had it all narrowed down to a single destination you're forced to once again make the hard decision of figuring out which location will be the absolute best for your snorkeling trip. So, to help provide a little insight, I'll go ahead and quickly explain what to expect from Raja Ampat's north. When people refer to the north of Raja Ampat they are typically talking about the area around the Dampier Straight. This is arguably one of the most popular areas to visit in Raja for multiple reasons. One being that it's logistically a lot easier to arrive to when compared to Misool in the south, and two it offers some incredibly diverse snorkeling. Snorkelers will enjoy fantastic drifts, pinnacles, manta cleaning stations, channels, mangroves, and the infamous village jetties. The variety of types of snorkeling sites in the Dampier region is absolutely one of the highlights of this area. The marine life is equally impressive as each locations offers something unique. The mangroves are a great place to find archerfish and some other fish you wouldn't otherwise find on a typical reef snorkel, while the shallow pinnacles and channels are a great place to encounter larger marine life life like schools of jacks, barracudas, and manta rays. Like Misool in the south, the north
Choosing a destination to snorkel in Indonesia can be confusing, and with over 17,000 islands knowing which one is best is no easy feat. To make things even more confusing, certain snorkeling locations, such as Raja Ampat, are broken up into sub-regions. If you’ve ever looked into a snorkeling trip through Raja Ampat you’ve probably
Choosing a destination to snorkel in Indonesia can be confusing, and with over 17,000 islands knowing which one is best is no easy feat. To make things even more confusing, certain snorkeling locations, such as Raja Ampat, are broken up into sub-regions. If you've ever looked into a snorkeling trip through Raja Ampat you've probably noticed that it's broken up into either cardinal locations like “the north, or “the south” or into areas knows as the Dampier Straight and Misool. Just when you thought you had it all narrowed down to a single destination you're forced to once again make the hard decision of figuring out which location will be the absolute best for your snorkeling trip. So, to help provide a little insight, I'll go ahead and quickly explain what to expect from Raja Ampat's Misool in the south. Misool is the southern most region of Raja Amapt, and in many ways it is the quintessential Raja. The landscape is made up of hundreds of small limestone islands with that classic mushrooms shape where they meet the ocean. The snorkeling is characterized by shallow reefs just beneath the iconic islands which give way to ridges, plateaus, pinnacles, and amazing shallow swim throughs. The coral is easily some of the best of the world with vast colonies of hard and soft coral as well as sponges and sea fans. Raja Ampat is often referred to as the Kingdom of Coral, and it's my belief that people are referring to Misool when they say this. While the coral might be absolutely amazing, the marine life is equally impressive if not more so. In a lot of snorkeling locations around the world big schools of fish are a bit deep snorkelers, not in Raja Ampat and definitely not in Misool. Shoals of
Choosing a destination to snorkel in Indonesia can be confusing, and with over 17,000 islands knowing which one is best is no easy feat. To make things even more confusing, certain snorkeling locations, such as Raja Ampat, are broken up into sub-regions. If you’ve ever looked into a snorkeling trip through Raja Ampat you’ve probably
There's a common misconception that snorkeling with current is dangerous, should be feared, and avoided. For those of you that feel this way, I want to share a few things that will hopefully help you look at the oceans current in a new, more positive light. 1. Current is essential to marine life and coral Currents move around the oceans nutrients delivering them to the different reefs. Indonesia for example, has a vast network of currents and in many ways the epicenter for marine biodiversity. Compare that with the Caribbean, which has much more mild currents and a fraction of the marine life. It's said that one reef could have more species of coral and fish than the entire Caribbean ocean. dad 2. Current makes for some fantastic drifts Certain sites work really well with the current. Sites with long fringing reefs for example can snorkeled as a drift where we jump in the up current side of the reef and let the current do all the work of moving us over the reef. All we need to do is float and enjoy the relaxing ride. 3. Current opens up the coral polyps and bring in the fish If you were to snorkel a site when the current is slack, the time between the two tide cycles when the current is not doing any thing, you'll notice a huge different in marine life and the reef when compared to the same reef when the current is running. As we learned earlier the current pushes the oceans nutrients around, and when the current starts to rise or fall all the coral polyps will open up to feed on the passing particles, making this all the corals look a lot more vibrant and alive. Similarly, the fish will also be a lot
There’s a common misconception that snorkeling with current is dangerous, should be feared, and avoided. For those of you that feel this way, I want to share a few things that will hopefully help you look at the oceans current in a new, more positive light. 1. Current is essential to marine life and coral
