West Escarceo

The dive

West Escarceo is the stretch of reef immediately west of Escarceo Point, the headland at the Puerto Galera end of the Verde Island Passage, about 15 minutes by banca from Sabang. The reef starts shallow — 3 m according to Marco Vincent Divers, 5 m according to Casalay and Dive Mindoro — and slopes down over rocky coral ledges and long whip corals, steepening in places, before flattening onto fine sand at about 24 to 25 m. Badladz publishes a shallower working range of 8 to 21 m; Casalay's header says 5 to 30 m. Whatever number you take, the sand at the bottom is where the reef ends and the dive turns.

The current is not incidental here, it is the design of the dive. The flood in the Verde Island Passage sets easterly, which is why every operator describes the same thing: drop on West Escarceo on a rising tide and let the flow carry you east, through the short tunnel at Hole in the Wall and, if you are on nitrox and the guide agrees, on into the Canyons. Casalay rates it Advanced on a strong flood and says it may suit all levels on slack water; Marco Vincent Divers calls it a recreational dive but recommends a guide because the currents are sometimes tricky; Capt'n Gregg's lists it as Open Water with a current briefing and rates the current moderate to strong. That spread is the honest answer: the site is as hard as the tide makes it, and the tide is why anyone plans around it.

What you see shifts with depth. Shallow, it is staghorn, plate and table corals with basket and tube sponges, and small reef fish in numbers — butterflyfish, sergeant majors, damsels, Moorish idols, triggerfish and pufferfish. On the slope, rocky ledges and whip corals hide porcupine puffers, moray eels, octopus and scorpionfish, and Casalay reports blue-spotted stingrays and red-toothed triggerfish. Out over the sand and in the blue there are big-mouth mackerel, juvenile tuna, trevallies and emperor fish. The occurrence records around Escarceo Point back the reef-fish picture — trumpetfish, Klein's and longnose butterflyfish, anthias, anemonefish, fire dartfish, moray eels, ribbon eel, peacock mantis shrimp, day octopus — and add one of the densest nudibranch lists on this coast, Chromodoris, Nembrotha, Phyllidia, Jorunna and Reticulidia species by the dozen. Marco Vincent Divers also rates it as a night dive, when the Christmas tree tubeworms are the draw and a mild current is what you want rather than a flood.

• A flood-tide drift that carries you east into Hole in the Wall and, with nitrox, on to the Canyons
• Reef top at 3-5 m easing onto fine sand at about 25 m, so the whole recreational range in one dive
• Whip corals and rocky ledges holding octopus, porcupine puffers and moray eels
• Big-mouth mackerel, juvenile tuna, trevallies and emperor fish off the deep end
• One of the heaviest nudibranch lists on the Puerto Galera coast
• Rated by Marco Vincent Divers as a night dive, for the Christmas tree tubeworms

Conditions

Water sits around 27 °C year-round with very little seasonal swing, and Divers Alert Network notes that currents through here are unpredictable because of the geological complexity of the passage, with cold-water upwellings feeding the biodiversity. Badladz describes the visibility as really good without giving a number and no operator publishes one for this site. A normal dive is a boat drop on the shallow reef, a slow slope down over ledges and whip coral, and a drift east that the guide either stops before Hole in the Wall or rides through it.

On current: This is a tide-driven drift and the sources deliberately disagree on difficulty because the site does. Casalay: 'a spectacular drift dive on a strong flood. But, on a slack tide maybe suitable for all levels of divers', and the current can push you toward Hole in the Wall or the Canyons depending on the direction of flow. Capt'n Gregg's rates the current moderate to strong and the level Open Water with a current briefing. Marco Vincent Divers calls it a recreational dive and recommends a guide because the currents are sometimes tricky. The Puerto Galera Yacht Club's tide notes explain the mechanism: through the Verde Island Passage the flood sets easterly at one to two knots and the ebb westerly at two to three, which is why the dive is planned on the flood and runs west to east. Depths also disagree — 3-24 m (Marco Vincent Divers), 5-25 m (Casalay, Dive Mindoro), 8-21 m (Badladz), 5-30 m in Casalay's own header — and we have used 5 to 25 m, the figure two independent sources give for reef top to sand.

Best months: Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May