The Cathedral

The Cathedral, well-known as Cathedral Marine Park Sanctuary, is a marine sanctuary and perhaps the best recognized in Philippines Dive site. Formerly, the Cathedral is quite desolate but because it has been seeded with coral from elsewhere and nonstop fish feeding, the Cathedral is now swarming with different kinds of underwater creatures.

There lies a giant rock formation that looks like a roofless underwater dome consisting of two large sea mounts, and between the two they planted a small cross at 50 ft. by former Philippine President Fidel Ramos in 1983 and blessed by Pope John Paul II.

The banca can be secured in shallow water and making the divers swim down and out across sand with small coral heads soon to be met by packs of fish eager to be fed. The fishes that disturb you to be fed include all the smaller angel fish, wrasse, triggerfish, surgeonfish, damselfish, pufferfish, Moorish idols and butterfly fish. You can find colorful feather stars and inflated soft corals everywhere when the current is running. And spot lots of colorful sponges and nudibranchs, hydroids, sea squirts, feather duster worms and algae that cover the rocks among the stony corals with Christmas-tree worms in the corals.

Location: Off Bagalangit Point.
Conditions: Can be strong
Visibility: 10 to 25 meters
Depth: 20 to 30 meters