M A N T A R A Y S I N M A S B A T E
But what an experience it can
be. After just a minute or two, the
divemaster signaled for us to move
on to the next location. We unhooked
ourselves and started finning hard
against the current, moving across
coral beds, enjoying the rich marine life
on the sea floor while also looking up
from time to time, and always keeping
our eyes peeled for the slow-moving
shadows of manta rays. A whitetip
reef shark was nesting in a clearing,
keeping a wary eye on us. This really
was a rich dive spot, especially for
those on the lookout, as I was, for the
big fish: thresher sharks, hammerheads
and schools of dolphins.
We were just leaving the reef shark
when an alarm went off: someone
was banging insistently on his air
tank, and I looked around to see one
of the dive guides pointing urgently
up to the surface. He held up three
fingers, signaling “W” and held them
up to his forehead; a whale shark had
been spotted.
Reinvigorated, our party took off
in the direction he had indicated, our
breaths forming a cloud of bubbles as
we fought the current. Another group
of divers were ahead of us, also taking
off in pursuit of the whale shark, which
was swimming towards Donsol.
As these things sometimes go, we
missed the sighting. When we surfaced,
somewhat reluctantly, a few minutes
later, our group was uncharacteristically
quiet except for a collective groan
that we let out as soon as we spat out
our regulators. We could hear excited
112
{
}
chatter from the other group, which
had surfaced a few meters away. Our
divemaster Jess muttered,
“
Nakita
nila”
(‘
They’ve seen it’).
On our way back to Ticao Island
Resort, a 25-minute boat ride
away, the mood was still upbeat
and optimistic. “They’re out there
somewhere,” someone said. And he
was right. The waters of Ticao Pass
are jumping with fish. Just a few
years ago, no one except the hardcore
diving enthusiasts knew about Ticao.
Until recently, the 1995 edition of
Jack Jackson’s
The Dive Sites of the
Philippines
was just about the only
readily available, internationally
published guidebook out there, and this
skipped over the Bicol region entirely.
Fast forward to 2013, and days like this
—
when boatloads of dive tourists are
vying to see the manta rays of Ticao —
are becoming common.
Divers started paying attention to
Ticao around the same time word
began to get out about the whale
sharks at Donsol. But while it used
to be that divers had to hire fishing
boats privately — often from Donsol,
a good two hours away — to dive at
Ticao Pass, places like Ticao Island
Resort have changed all that. The
resort is now under the management
of a diver couple — Rico Calleja
(
also the proprietor of Fundive Asia,
which operates the dive center on
the premises) and his wife Jessica,
who manages the resort. Rico, who is
himself from Albay, lays claim to being
one of the first to dive the Manta Bowl
and develop it as a dive site. In fact, one
Ticao Island Resort
is close to many
dive sites, including
the Manta Bowl;
(
right) a manta ray
dwarfs a diver
18
ft
average
wingspan
5
ft
average height
20
ft
average size
Not drawn to scale
0
ft
5
ft
10
ft
15
ft
20
ft
Size it up! Man, manta andmotorboat
PHOTO
COURTESY OF TICAO ISLAND RESORT
