Sardines of Moalboal

The sardine run in Moalboal, Phillipines is a diving spectacle of epic proportions. Diving in and amongst millions of sardines will take your breath away. The massive school of fish can hypnotise you with their ever flashing changing shapes and patterns. Like a water based flock of starlings the fish dazzle divers and snorkelers with endless shapes and formations underwater. This is in the top ten of all my 4000+ dives I have ever done.

If you get the chance to go to Moalboal to see this specticle then to really get the full experience you need to dive early in the morning, just after sunrise. This enables you to dive when there are few people in the water and the fish are more alive and there is a lot less particles in the water.  The shoal hardly ever moves from its location less than 50 m off the beach near Panagsama Beach and entry into the water is like stepping into a swimming pool. you will soon find the fish as from a distance it appears like a big black bolb.

Getting close and swimming through the big schools of fish is mesmeric. Take the time to hang around outside the school and watch the patterns and shapes the sardines make. 1 dive here is not enough!