It was a quintessential Tubbataha dive—volatile currents, tons of fish, and a big surprise. We were at Seafan Alley on Tubbataha’s North Atoll, making our way back to the shallows after some 40 minutes of spotting slender whitetip and chunky gray reef sharks, giant trevally, tuna, and turtles. The graceful sharks showed up when the currents picked up and mingled with shimmering walls of jacks, or a huge school of Silvertips concealing a couple of big, round marble rays trying to sneak across the edge of the reef. We were looking upward toward more schools of fish, with a couple of big, fat Napoleon wrasses cruising above us at 10 meters, when we glanced behind to see the whipping of a big tail in the murky distance.

Honasan, A. B. (2016, July 2). Our big surprise in Tubbataha-diving with Destiny. Philippine Daily Inquirer, pp. F1, F2.