In August 2023 I did a three week long dive trip to the Philippines with my friend John. We spent the first week at Anilao staying at Buceo Anilao Dive Resort.

There are dozens of dive sites located within 20 minutes run from the resort.

Unfortunately we had a Super Typhoon hit the northern Philippines when we were there, so the Coast Guard banned all boats and diving later in the week. We decided to come back again as we didn't even do half the dive sites there are in the area, so in 2025 we spent two weeks here.

Mainit West is located right next to Mainit Corner which is located about 500 metres south from the resort around the point of the peninsula. A GPS mark for the dive spot is 13° 40' 56.428" N 120° 53' 34.868" E (using WGS84 as the datum).

A satellite photo from Google Earth that shows the location of the dive site where the camera is at the bottom. The red marker is Mainit Corner and Buceo Anilao Resort at top left.

The dive boats anchor in the shallows to the west of the rocks on the corner. There are some bommies here with a sand bottom. Once we enter the water we drop to six metres and then head south. The bottom drops to 12 metres and then steeply to 24 metres. The slope continues down to perhaps 40 metres. Once deeper we head north-west. As usual, there are thousands of niger triggerfish (also known as blue or red-tooth).

The reef near the bommie	nembrotha

After a short distance there is a nice wall with lots of coral and sponges. A bit further on there is a small gorgonia. On this there is one tiny pygmy sea horse, although later in the week when I could not dive two were seen. A bit further on there is a small barrel sponge and inside is a white giant anglerfish. Nearby is a grey giant anglerfish.

The reef near the bommie	nembrotha

We turn around near here and head back a bit shallower. There are lots of nudibranchs, shrimps, barrel sponges. In the shallows we see a black ribbon eel and then a blue one. There are also many species of moray eel and a large spotted yellow boxfish.

On a second dive here we see some bigger fish off the wall, cobia I think. My buddy saw a clown triggerfish and there were trumpetfish, a large cuttlefish and octopus, lionfish and a porcelain crab.

The reef near the bommie	nembrotha

After a bit over an hour, we are back under the boat for our safety stop. This was a really good dive. Water temperature was 28C in October and the visibility was good, around 10 to 15 metres.

MORE PHOTOS

The reef near the bommie	nembrotha