Philippines · Sulu Sea
Tubbataha Reefs
Short liveaboard season when park access, sea state and visibility line up best.
A UNESCO marine park 150km offshore in the middle of the Sulu Sea, Tubbataha is reachable only by liveaboard during a tight 3-month window. Two atolls and a small reef bracket pristine walls that drop into deep blue, with reliable encounters with grey reef sharks, jacks, tuna and the occasional whale shark, hammerhead or thresher.
Good season
Mid-March to mid-June only — the rest of the year the park is closed and the seas are unworkable. April–May is the sweet spot: flattest crossings, warmest water, and the highest pelagic odds.
Trip duration
6–7 nights round-trip from Puerto Princesa, Palawan. There is no day-boat option.
Dive style
Wall and drift diving with negative entries; 3–4 dives a day plus optional night dives at the ranger station. Currents are moderate but unpredictable.
Dive level
Advanced Open Water and 50+ dives is the realistic floor; most operators require it. Deep, blue-water comfort matters.
Reef health
What you’ll actually findOne of the few reefs whose live coral has held up over the last decade. Plan with confidence.
Coral reef health
How is this calculated?On current trend, no live coral by ~2181. Losing about 0.3% cover per year — roughly 157 years of reef left to see if nothing changes.
Heat stress right now
Mild warmth. Worth watching — no bleaching yet.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch · updated May 2026 · 1.1 °C-week heat dose
What to expect on a dive
Reef slopes from 10 m down are still vivid. Shallow tops show some bleaching scars. Liveaboard season is short (Mar–Jun) — book early.
Sources, methodology, and the raw numbers
Raw observed numbers
- Coral cover: 47% (survey Apr 2024, Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park photo-quadrat survey)
- Bleached: 8%
- Recent mortality: 2%
- April 2024 surveys recorded localised bleaching on shallow reef flats; submerged reef slopes remained largely unaffected.
Raw thermal numbers
- NOAA CRW alert level: Watch
- Degree Heating Weeks: 1.1 °C-wk
- SST anomaly: +0.9 °C
How we summarise this
Observed coral cover, bleaching, and mortality come from named in-situ surveys with a stated date and method — they describe one snapshot of one reef and do not extrapolate to neighbouring sites. Current thermal stress is satellite-derived from NOAA Coral Reef Watch at ~5 km resolution; it indicates risk, not observed coral damage. We deliberately separate observed condition, current thermal stress, and projection — and we never publish a projection without a documented model and uncertainty.
Sources
- Reef Check — Reef Check Foundation
- International Coral Reef Initiative — ICRI Secretariat
- NOAA Coral Reef Watch — U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- AIMS Long-Term Monitoring Program — Australian Institute of Marine Science
- Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network — GCRMN / ICRI
- Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment — AGRRA Program / Perry Institute for Marine Science
- NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program — NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program
- NOAA CoastWatch / OceanWatch — NOAA NESDIS / STAR
- Allen Coral Atlas — Arizona State University Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science
- Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority — Australian Government
- Reef Life Survey — Reef Life Survey Foundation
- NASA PO.DAAC — NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory / Caltech
- Copernicus Marine Service — Mercator Ocean International for the European Union
- NASA Ocean Color (OB.DAAC) — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Ocean Biology Processing Group
- Argo float network — International Argo Program / UCSD
- CoralWatch — University of Queensland
- IMOS / AODN — Integrated Marine Observing System / Australian Ocean Data Network
- WRI Reefs at Risk Revisited — World Resources Institute
- Ocean Health Index — OHI partnership (Conservation International + UCSB + NCEAS)
- IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere (SROCC) — Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- GOA-ON — Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network — GOA-ON Secretariat + IOC-UNESCO
- HAEDAT — Harmful Algae Event Database — IOC-UNESCO Intergovernmental Panel on Harmful Algal Blooms
- NCEI Marine Microplastics — NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
Reef condition changes year to year. If you visit, consider supporting responsible-travel and conservation operators on the ground.
Pressure on this reef
Protection · fishing · what you can doProtected-area status
No-take reserveFully no-take — no fishing of any kind. The strongest protection tier.
Fishing pressure
Low fishing pressureDominant pressures
- liveaboard tourism
- warming
3 Green Fins-verified operators known at this location.
What you can do
Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park is fully no-take and ranger-patrolled year-round. Liveaboards are the only access — book outfits that contribute to the conservation levy.
Protection status sourced from Protected Planet / WDPA and refined with Marine Protection Atlas. Fishing pressure proxy is Global Fishing Watch AIS data. See the methodology for what these sources can and can’t prove.
Pollution & water-quality
What divers should know2024 bleaching event
WATCHSince 2024
April 2024 surveys recorded localised bleaching on shallow reef flats; submerged slopes largely unaffected.
What this means for your trip
Reef slopes from 10 m down are still vivid. Liveaboard-only season (Mar–Jun) is short — book early.
Dive sites here
2 curated
Shark Airport (North Atoll)
Reef plateau on the North Atoll where whitetip and grey reef sharks rest on the sand. Drift the wall and stop on top to watch the sharks com…
Coron Bay
Coron Bay, located in the Calamian Islands of Palawan, is world-renowned for its exceptional World War II Japanese shipwrecks. These histori…
Gear
What to bringSite-specific add-ons
Some dive sites here call for extra gear. Check the individual site page for full context.
- SMB + reel — Drift exits over deep water — required by all operators. · Shark Airport (North Atoll)
What divers say
“The walls at Tubbataha are what every Caribbean wall wishes it was — twice as alive, half as touched.”
“We had a thresher cross under us at Shark Airport and the whole boat lost its mind at dinner. That's a normal day there.”