Sumilon Island

Sumilon Island, just off the southern tip of Cebu across from Dumaguete, was the Philippines' first marine sanctuary and still retains some of the most pristine coral gardens in the Visayas, where schooling sardines form shimmering tornadoes that spiral around divers in the 5 to 20 metre range. The island's eastern wall drops beyond sport diving limits in dramatic stair-steps of hard coral terraces, while the protected western lagoon offers calm, shallow reef for beginners. Seasonal upwellings from the Cebu Strait attract whale sharks and thresher sharks, making Sumilon an unusual combination of spectacular fish-life reef and occasional big-animal encounter.