Location: Sulu Sea Map
Area: 33,200 ha (128 sq mi)
Entrance Fee: $75
Tubbataha Reef is a protected area and marine natural park within
the Philippines, located in the central Sulu Sea. The marine and
bird sanctuary consists of two large atolls (named North and South)
and the smaller Jessie Beasley Reef and covers a total area of 7,030
hectares. It is located 150 km southeast of Puerto Princesa City,
the provincial capital of Palawan. The uninhabited islands and reef
are part of the island municipality of Cagayancilo, Palawan, located
about 130 km northeast of the reef.
In December 1993, UNESCO
included Tubbataha Reef Natural Park as a World Heritage Site as a
unique example of atolls with very high densities of marine species;
North Atoll is a nesting site for many species of birds and sea
turtles. The park is an example of a pristine coral reef with a
100-meter perpendicular coral wall, an extensive lagoon and two
coral islands. In 1999, the Ramsar Convention included Tubbataha
Reef on its list of wetlands of international importance. In 2008,
the reef was proposed to be named one of the seven "new" wonders of
the world.
The national park and the southern Philippine
archipelago are part of the Coral Triangle and are recognized as a
center of marine biodiversity; it is home to 75% of the described
coral species and 40% of the world's reef fish. The area is now
under great threat due to overfishing and environmentally damaging
fishing practices. Research by scientists visiting the reefs since
1980 has shown that Tubbataha Reef Nature Park is home to at least
600 species of fish, 360 species of coral, 11 species of sharks, 13
species of dolphins and whales and 100 species of birds. The reef is
also a nesting site for hawksbill and green sea turtles.
The two atolls, located around six kilometers apart, together form
the largest coral reef in the Philippines. They belong to the Mapun
municipality. The name Tubbataha comes from the Samal. In its
meaning it refers to a large reef that only rises out of the water
at low tide. According to another interpretation, it means “resting
place of the manta rays”. The reef is located in the middle of the
Sulu Sea, about 160 km southeast of Puerto Princesa, the capital of
Palawan.
On both atolls, the coral roof is between 100 and
300 m wide, is almost completely submerged under water at high tide
and only forms a closed shape above the water when the tide is
strong. At its center lie shallow, sandy lagoons that form an ideal
habitat for stingrays and turtles. Towards the outside, coral walls
fall in steps down to 1000 m, and after a few kilometers to over
2200 m.
Tubbatawa North Reef is 17.4 km long and up to 5.5 km
wide. It has a total area of 80 km², and the lagoon is up to 24
meters deep, according to other sources up to 33 meters. The ring
reef is closed and there is no boat entry into the lagoon. The atoll
has two islands (North Islet and Central Islet), and some black
boulders are constantly above water. The main island of North Islet
(also Bird Island or Tubba Tawa Island), which is only a few
thousand square meters in size and is 1.2 meters high at the
northeastern end of the atoll, is covered in grass and guano. When
the tide is low, some sand banks appear, each around 90 meters long.
Tubbataha South Reef is around 8.0 km long and up to 5.5 km
wide. At its southern tip lies the 1.6 meter high South Islet, with
an old lighthouse still in operation, whose extremely dim light is
unsuitable for navigation. In addition, Black Rock and other black
rocks and sand cays in the north of the atoll are constantly above
water.
Jessie Beazley Reef is located 24.5 kilometers
northwest of North Islet.
The 500 km long and 30 km wide Cagayan de Sulu Ridge divides the
Sulu Sea into the northwest and southeast basins and connects the
reef islands of Cagayan, with the neighboring islands of Arena and
Cawili as well as Tubbataha and Cagayan de Sulu northeast of Borneo.
The atolls of Tubbataha were probably formed by a collapsed
caldera (underground magma chamber), on the edges of which a
limestone roof, now almost 100 m high, was formed by the tiny coral
polyps over the course of thousands of generations and created the
first escarpment. This hypothesis is supported by the Sulu Trench,
which runs just south of the archipelago and adjoins the Negros
Trench to the east - the Manila Trench continues to the north.
Volcanic activity could have occurred specifically on these faults
due to plate tectonics and subduction.
Philippine President Corazon Aquino declared the reef and
surrounding area to be Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park on August
11, 1988. This meant that commercial fishing and the collection of
corals were banned, although this was implemented only slowly and
then almost completely and across the board in February 2000 with
the establishment of a permanent ranger station on a southern
sandbank in the northern atoll. In 1993 the national park was
declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The area protected so far
extends from 8°44' - 8°57' North and 119°48' - 120°03'. At the
beginning of 2005, the northwestern Jessie Beazley Reef with a
diameter of 500 m and a sandbar 10 m long and 1 m high at high tide
was incorporated. After fishing and anchoring were previously
permitted, the protected area was reclassified on August 23, 2010
according to the guidelines of Republic Act 7586, in coordination
with UNESCO, and has since been designated as Tubbataha Reef Natural
Park and declared a no-take zone. Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park is
among six protected areas in the Philippines that have been
designated as Ramsar sites.
7% of the entrance fees go
directly to the budget of the greater municipality of Cagayancillo
in the Cagayan Islands, as the Tubbataha Atoll is administered by
it. There are also excellent diving areas in the Cagayan
archipelago.
In the 970.30 km² marine nature park there are coral banks over
an area of around 100 km². This makes it the third largest
contiguous reef system in the Philippines, which is (again) largely
intact due to its remote location and is ranked among the 10 most
beautiful in the world in diving magazine hit lists. The French
diving pioneer Jacques-Yves Cousteau was the only one to visit this
reef twice.
However, it is not a pristine, intact reef.
Especially in the mid to late 1980s, poaching using cyanide and
dynamite and all other illegal and legal fishing methods took place
on a large scale; not only, but also from foreign cutters, most of
which came from the People's Republic of China, Vietnam and Korea.
There is also damage caused by trawl nets, lines and anchors. The
consequences are still obvious today, even though large areas of
coral rubble are now well overgrown. The walls, especially in the
deeper regions, hardly suffered. Approximately 500 different species
of fish can be observed in the waters of the reef, such as the
whitetip reef shark, rare blacktip reef sharks, gray reef sharks,
eight species of marine mammals (including dolphins), large tuna and
mackerel, groupers, Napoleon wrasse, ornamental Crawfish, large
stingrays are rarer but not unusual. Nesting nests of green and
hawksbill turtles can be found on the islands of the reef. Rare
guests, but the chance is definitely there, are manta rays and whale
sharks. In addition, there are around 374 species of soft and hard
corals, seagrass meadows and an unmanageable amount of
microorganisms. The huge fans of countless gorgonians attract
attention in places, and many soft corals indicate the good water
quality.
Scientifically, 20 to 30 metric tons of biomass per
square nautical mile is considered a general indicator of good reef
health. According to a survey, Tubbataha has 87.2 t, while Puerto
Galera / northeastern Mindoro is far behind in second place in the
Philippines with 26.24 t.
The inventory list is completed by
44 species of birds, many of which nest on the island in the
northern atoll, which is only 300-500 m wide and has sparse
vegetation; There is an absolute ban on entry here. The area is
mainly inhabited by terns (white-capped noddi, Anous minutus; noddi,
Anous stolidus; sooty tern, Onychoprion fuscatus; common tern,
Thalasseus bergii) and brown boobies (Sula leucogaster). Occasional
visitors include albatrosses and ariel frigatebirds (Fregatta
ariel).
The underwater landscape with its diversity of species attracts many
recreational divers due to its excellent condition - due to the great
distance from fishing areas. Although the reef can only be visited from
mid-March to mid-June and takes many hours to travel by boat from Cebu
City, Manila or Puerto Princesa, its appeal to divers is increasing.
Nevertheless, the atolls only reach fewer than a thousand people per
year. Depending on the conditions, the visibility under water is 15 to
40 m and on some days - especially in May - up to 45 m. Both atolls (the
larger north atoll and the south atoll) as well as the Jessie Beazley
Reef, which is about 22 km northeast of the archipelago, can be dived
become.
Extreme vertical and horizontal currents that are
life-threatening for inexperienced divers can suddenly occur in the
Tubbataha Atolls (“washing machine”).
On January 17, 2013, the USS Guardian, a US Navy minehunter, ran aground in the marine conservation park, destroying approximately 1,000 m² of coral reef.