Dive
into adventure

Our SSI-certified dive center is open
for both beginners and experienced divers

Discover the beauty of Pandan Island’s countless dive sites, from beautiful coral gardens to deep drop-offs. Dive into beautiful blue waters teeming with over 200 species of colorful marine life and fine corals.

Even beginners can dive!

Our fully-equipped SSI dive center is for all levels, with courses from ‘Try Scuba Diving’ to ‘Master Diver’.

Our team of diving experts can help you organize dive safaris to Apo Reef, the largest coral reef in the Philippines. With a big outrigger boat, we can reach the 34-square-kilometer atoll in 120 minutes.

Come with us to meet the sea turtles. Who knows, you might even spot a shark! Scuba diving at Pandan Island is a must.
It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience you won’t forget.

Diving Guidelines

The Dive Shop

Established in 1991, our dive shop ‘Mariposa Diving’ offers SSI courses of all levels in 3 languages (English, Tagalog, Czech).
We have complete sets of diving equipment and many tanks available for hire. Nitrox dives and courses are also available.

Beyond Pandan Island, Mariposa Diving is the leading dive operator for trips to Apo Reef Natural Park,
the biggest coral reef in the Philippines, the second-biggest in the world, and a Marine Protected Area.

Dive with the experts for your next big adventure.

Dive Courses

We provide high quality education, customized schedules and a relaxed environment
to help you make the most of your dive course.
Choose from a range of SSI-certified courses, including specialties like Nitrox and Wreck Diver.

	SSI
RECREATIONAL	Try Scuba
	Scuba Diver
	Open Water Diver
	Advanced Adventurer
	Diver Stress & Rescue
	Advanced Open Water Diver
PROFFESSIONAL	Dive Guide
	Assistant Instructor
	Open Water Instructor

The SSI digital training system is the standard in diver education, with comprehensive videos,
photos and illustrations that connect you to real-life diving experiences.

All courses are available in English or French. The course material is available in 30 languages.
Sign-up now (https://my.divessi.com/login) for free access to basic materials, no hidden fees!

Pandan Island Dive Sites

House Reef Depths 2 – 18m. Ideal for beginners, courses or a warm-up dive. No current ever. Still, a wide variety of coral fish can be seen. Nearby ‘Lion fish den’ consists of a group of corals & rocks, hideout of numerous lion fish, cleaner-shrimp & surgeon fish. Sometimes leaf and ghost-pipe fish.	SSI Divelog
Coral Garden East Depths 5 – 25m. Easy but beautiful dive. In a lively garden of mainly hard corals with patches of sand in between all kinds of marine life can be observed: surgeon fish, trigger fish, coral trouts, schools of fusiliers, stingrays, moray & sand eels, and some of our 10 resident sea-turtles.	SSI Divelog
Coral Garden West Depths 5 – 30m. An area totally covered by hard and soft corals. all kinds of marine life can be observed: surgeon fish, trigger fish, coral trouts, shools of fusiliers, unicorn fish, cuttle fish. In the deeper parts of the dive, large gorgonians and Neptune cups are abundant. Bumphead parrot-fish most often here.	SSI Divelog
Neptune’s Land Depths between 18 – 30 m. This dive is a flat plateau connecting Napoleon Wall and the Coral Garden east. As the name indicates Neptune cups to a considerable size can be found. Also turtles seem to favor this place.	SSI Divelog
Corner Depths between 5 – 30 m. This dive site on the SW-side of the island consists of a steep slope with occasional big rocks and canyons that offer shelter to a wide array of reef fishes and attract predators such as mackerels and trevallys. There is a variation of different corals and big sea fans up to 2 meters diameter to be found.	SSI Divelog
North Wall A sheer drop from about 7- 35 m makes that place an interesting dive site. Although not as many fish as in other parts of the island can be seen, the overhanging corals create a very special atmosphere. Pelagic fish such as tuna and mackerel are frequent	SSI Divelog
Gorgonian Drift Depths 10 – 35 m. Following the North Wall westwards the the wall becomes less steep and the stronger currents favour the growth of fan corals (Gorgoninans). Away from the wall shcools of snappers and fusiliers can be seen as wall as tunas or mackerels.	SSI Divelog
Mystic Grounds Depths 20 – 35 m. This site extends to the S-SE of Pandan, between here and Sablayan. Owns the name to the often limited visibility. Many soft corals, gorgonians, elephant ears, sponges.	SSI Divelog
Pandan South Depths 5 – 30 m. This site is great for macro.	SSI Divelog

Deep dives for experienced divers, best enjoyed with Nitrox

Anchor Depths between 25 – 42 m. On a underwater hill at a depth of 32 m, completely overgrown by corals, a huge anchor has come to rest at least 50 years ago. Snappers, barracudas and pelagic fish can be seen. At the bottom of the hill is a tree-like sea nettle, all white.	SSI Divelog
Napoleon Wall At the deeper end of Neptune’s Land, there is a small wall with a depth ranging from 28 to 38 meters that is a popular gathering place for schools of snappers, rainbow runners, and occasionally, napoleon wrasse.	SSI Divelog
Napoleon Corner At the end of the Napoleon Wall a rocky outcrop forms the Napoleon corner. Exposed to the current this divesite ranges from 30 to 45 meter and is exposed to the currents. When the current is running the site is teeming with all different coralfish like grouper, sweetlips, snappers as well as trevally, makrel and sometimes tuna.	SSI Divelog
Barracuda Deep Depths from 30- 40 m. Probably the most advanced dive around the island. A wall at 30 m depth facing the South China Sea is the place to see big schools of trevallys, fusiliers, surgeon fish, spanish mackerels and unicorn fish. Eagle rays and napoleons are often seen as well as barracudas up to a size of 1,5 m. The whole wall is overgrown with hard and soft corals and the gorgonians reach a considerable size.	SSI Divelog

Pandan Island Dive Safaris

Apo Reef

Pandan Island is the closest dive operator to the world-known Apo Reef, and is established as the leading diveshop organizing dive-safaris to the reef. Apo Reef is an atoll of 40 square kilometers and offers uncountable dive sites and a good chance to see sharks and other pelagics. Turtles are also very common.

The reef is famous for its marine life and drop-offs, which are mostly vertical walls down to 30 – 80 meters. From Pandan Island Apo Reef can be reached by the outrigger boat”M/B Karla” in only ninety minutes.

APO REEF has been declared a marine park a couple of years ago, an entrance fee levvied by the Eco-tourism Office Sablayan has to be paid by each visitor.

A normal day trip to Apo Reef would be like this:
7:00 am Departure from Pandan Island after breakfast
9:30 am Arrival on Shark Ridge, getting ready for the first dive
11:00 am Surfacing from first dive, continue to Apo Island
12:00 am Arrival on Apo Island getting ready for second dive
13:00 am Surfacing from second dive, lunch break, surface interval, possibility to visit Apo Island.
14:30 am Third dive, around Apo Island
15:30 am Surfacing from third dive, return to Pandan Island
18:30 am Arrival on Pandan Island

This schedule is approximate and can change due to weather conditions and other events.

Guidelines for diveboats

Guidelines for snorkeling on Apo Reef

DIVE SPOTS ON APO REEF

SSI Divelog

SHARK RIDGE
Depth between 10 – 50 m. The whole North-east side of Apo reef consists of a sheer drop with many overhangs. Whitetip and gray reef sharks are common sight here as well as turtles, barracudas and schools of snappers.

APO ISLAND
There are several dive sites around Apo island ranging between 10 and

SSI Divelog

50 m. These site are the best as far as corals are concerned. Huge table corals, stag horns, brain corals, fire corals and a huge variety of soft corals can be found all around the island. The northern, eastern an southern side consist of sheer drops with many pelagics and turtles, in

recent years Hammerhead sharks and Manta rays are encountered more and more frequently. Currents can be unpredictable and make the northern dive site difficult for beginners. The western

SSI Divelog

side is rather a slope than a drop-off which makes it more

easy for less experienced divers. Apo reef has been declared a marine park and there is a turtle sanctuary and a ranger station on Apo island .

SSI Divelog

APO 29
Apo 29 is a an underwater mound reaching to about 25 meters below the surface of the South China Sea, a true blue water dive, only for experienced divers, as currents can be strong and unpredictable and the sharks more curious than in other spots around Apo reef.

HUNTER’S ROCK
The authors personal favorite, this dive spot located about 10 nautical miles west of Apo Island consists of a rock pinnacle that almost reaches the surface, sharks and big trevallys are very common as are strong current which makes this dive spot tricky for inexperienced divers without professional guide.

MEROPE ROCK
Also Merope, like Hunters Rock, is about 10 nautical miles west of Apo Island which makes it only accessible during overnight Apo trips or on the way to Busuanga. An underwater mound reaching to about 15 below the surface, the eastern side consists of a wall that offers good chances to see sharks, tunas and other pelagics

Guidelines for Diving

We offer 2 guided dives daily at 9:30 and 14:30.
Please inform the dive staff at least 1hour before your planned dive. Night dives need to be planned until noon and are at 18:00 with guide, or later, without.
On request, advanced divers (buddy groups) with more than 50 logged dives each and who dove with us already, may go on beach dives independently. Please consult our dive masters.

Please be reminded of the following.

All certified divers are responsible for their own safety and dive profiles (including guided dives), following dive tables and/or computers.
Safety stops are mandatory (5m, 3mins) on ALL DIVES.
Divers who have not been diving for 12 months are required to do a refresher course with an instructor or divemaster.
All divers are required to use a full set of SCUBA GEAR, including an alternative air source.
Divers on Non-limit Diving packages or dive safaris please ask dive staff for dive computer rental.
Reserve starts at 50 BAR (750 psi), time for your ascent!! However, we do like you to make the most of your dive; provided you are not alone, you can still enjoy the coral gardens no deeper then 6m. Do surface with at least 30 BAR (450psi) tank pressure !!!
Always remain close to your buddy, even on guided dives. If you loose your buddy during the dive inform your diveguide as soon as possible.
We recommend: do a weight-check at the end of your 1st dive so you can enjoy the following ones with as little weight as necessary ;-))

Divers are recommended to do a fundive around Pandan island before they join a trip to dive Apo Reef. This gives us a chance to assess the divers’ skills, make sure they have well fitting equipment and are properly weighted (more then 50% of the divers carry too much lead !). The purpose is to avoid dangerous situations (uncontrolled descents/ascents or group separations) in case difficult situations like waves or currents arise out on the reef, which can spoil the day for you and the whole group.

HAVE FUN AND SAFE DIVING MARIPOSA DIVE TEAM

Diveinto adventure

The Dive Shop

Dive Courses

Pandan Island Dive Sites

Pandan Island Dive Safaris

Apo Reef

DIVE SPOTS ON APO REEF

Guidelines for Diving

Dive
into adventure