In October 2025 I did a two week long dive trip to the Philippines with my friend John. We spent both weeks at Anilao staying at Buceo Anilao Dive Resort.

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

When we visited the first time in 2023, 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. As such, there were many sites we could not visit till this later trip.

Arthurs Rock is located about three kilometres north-west from the resort off Casa Bahia Dive Resort. A GPS mark for the dive spot is 13° 42' 29.329"N 120° 52' 26.270"E (using WGS84 as the datum).

A satellite photo from Google Earth that shows the location of the dive site which is just above the name Lilom Resort. Buceo Anilao Resort at bottom right

The dive boat uses a mooring a short distance off the shore in about 6 metres, the bottom is coral. Once at the bottom we see a turtle (and another one or perhaps the same one at the end). We head west down a gradual slope to 24 metres and then north-west where there are a series of small walls.

There are thousands of niger triggerfish (also called blue or red-tooth) as per most sites here. We also see two lots of small catfish, some cobia up high and lots of tropical species. We also see a huge octopus out in the open.

John and a small gorgonia on the wall	Another small gorgonia

The walls run for a distance, with sandy/coral rubble in between. After a while we go up onto the top and head back at an angle towards the mooring. We see Moorish idols and a few species of butterflyfish. We also see large and small spotted moray eels, some mantis shrimps (one with eggs), many species of nudibranchs and some shrimp.

A turtle we saw in the shallows	A leaf fish

We also see a blind shark, a large pufferfish, some anemones and clownfish, a mushroom coral pipefish in coral and a ribbon eel. We finish our dive in the shallows under the boat where there are some coral outcrops. In October the water temperature was 28C and the visibility on the two dives I did here varied from 12-15 to 15-18 metres deeper and less in the shallows. A very good dive site.

MORE PHOTOGRAPHS

Chromodoris willani	Favorinus tsunuganus
Flabellina species	Ercolania endophytophaga, a new nudibranch for me
A tiny crab on coral	A longnose butterflyfish
A very large octopus	Christmas tree worm