Scuba diving in Busuanga

Busuanga is a municipality in the province of Palawan, Philippines and its territory covers one-third of the western part of Busuanga Island. Busuanga Airport is located there. Busuanga offers tourists a wide array of activities. There are mangrove forests, hills, mountains, waterfalls, white sand beaches, waving palm trees, cliffs, and natural springs that visitors can explore. Diving here is always interesting. Busuanga is home to beautiful coral reefs, blue seas, lots of wrecks. The most interesting dive sites in the area include Okikawa Maru/Taiei Maru, Akitsushima, Kyokuzan Maru, Kogyo Maru. Okikawa Maru/Taiei Maru (also named Concepcion Wreck) is situated just south of Concepcion Village in Busuanga. The average depth here is 16m/52ft and the maximum depth is 26m/85ft. The 168m/551ft long Japanese auxiliary tanker Taiei Maru was sunk in 1944 by American planes. It lies almost straight at the bottom of the sea. Sometimes, the wreck is washed by very strong currents but this just serves to attract large amounts of marine life. Another popular dive site is Akitsushima, which sank in 1944. The wreck is 148m/485ft long. There are some soft-corals on the hull and on the superstructure; the fish-life around this wreck is amazing. School of barracudas of reasonable sizes (up to 1m), batfish sweet lips, lion fish, scorpion fish, big rays and turtles can be seen here. Also there is Black Island Wreck, which is located east of the Malajon Island. The 45m/148ft long coastal ship of unknown origin lies upright on a sandy slope. The body of the ship is densely covered with sponges and hydrozoan.