Philippines: Sogod Bay [Leyte] + Moalboal [Cebu] + Pangatalan [Palawan] - March 2020

For two weeks in March 2020, a three-stop trip to the Philippines. Objective: to discover marine protected areas, where ocean lovers are working to protect the seabed and restore coral reefs. With Plongeurs du Monde, Green Inc. and Sogod Bay Scuba Resort in Padre Burgos (Leyte); with Dolphin House Eco Resort in Moalboal (Cebu); and with the Sulubaaï Foundation in Pangatalan (Palawan). My very last diving trip was in 2020, just before the borders closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic...

    In the plankton-laden water, a whale shark appears... (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, March 2020)

    Sogod Bay Whale Sharks

    I take you back to Sogod Bay, nicknamed "Whale Shark Bay", in the south of Leyte Island, Philippines... On my first trip there in 2008, I missed them. Twelve years later, I was luckier!
    A school of white-striped snappers scatters as I approach. (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, March 2020)

    Back to Sogod Bay, to dive and marvel

    In lack of salt water, I'm nostalgically looking back these days to my last underwater images brought back from the Philippines... It was a year ago, early 2020. Before the Covid-19 pandemic and border closures.
    My fellow trainees, very busy marking a position, with a surface parachute. (Trébeurden, June 2020)

    Travelling and diving in the post-Covid world

    It's hard to make diving travel plans with the Covid-19 pandemic. In the world before the coronavirus, I used to go diving in the Philippines or Indonesia... In the world after, I dive in Brittany in green and cold waters.