Coron Island in Palawan - Philippines

Coron is an island that has several diving sites featuring wrecks of old Japanese ships that sunk during the Second World War. Some of the diving spots are ideal for the more experienced divers.

Akitsushima Wreck Diving Site

This is the site where you can find the wreckage of the Akitsushima warship which sunk in the bay of Coron in 1944. There are many fishes that can be found in this site like huge groupers, barracudas, snappers and tuna. This dive is ideal for advanced divers because of its depth. Divers will see the main deck of the ship at a depth of one hundred ninety feet so divers should penetrate the ship with caution. This diving site can be explored with the use of Nitrox 32 which allows divers to make profiles that cannot be done with regular oxygen.

Irako Wreck Diving Site

This is another Japanese ship that also sunk in 1944 in the bay of Coron Island. The Irako wreck's main deck can be reached at a depth of thirty four meters or one hundred twelve feet. The depth also makes this diving site perfect only for advanced divers. Irako wreck features several sponges and corals where many fishes live like groupers, barracuda, snappers, scorpion and lion fishes. There are many batfishes as well.

Kogyo Maru Wreck Diving Site

Another warship by the Japanese forces that sunk in the waters of Coron Island in 1944 as well. You can reach this diving site at a depth of thirty six meters under the water. The hull of the ship can be reached at twenty two meters. Divers in this site will still see the cement bags that were part of the ship's cargo when it sunk. Another cargo has construction materials that divers will see when they reach thirty meters or ninety nine feet in depth. The Kogyo Maru ship wreck has several lettuce corals. There are many shoals as well. The fishes that divers in this diving site will see are batfish, lionfish, scorpion fish and snappers.

Cathedral Cave Diving Site

This is a cavern you can find in Coron Island. This can be found on the southern part of Coron. This is an ideal site for beginners and intermediate divers. The dive begins at a depth of six meters where you will see a wall made of rocks. Then divers should go inside a tunnel and then go down at twelve meters more that will lead to the cave. The first thing divers will see in the cave is a big tree. Its branches and the trunk lay above a mound of sand. Then divers should proceed on to where they see the light and they will see a large cathedral.

There are many diving shops or centers offering diving tours so you can check out any diving site in Coron safely. The price of the diving tours they offer also depends on the number of sites that guests want to explore. For one diving spot the cost is usually one thousand seven hundred pesos. The price for two diving spots is typically two thousand eight hundred pesos and around three thousand nine hundred pesos is the usual cost for three diving sites.