Nature and Wildlife

Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park, South Sulu Sea, Palawan
“The UNESCO World Heritage Committee cited Tubbataha Reef as one of the most outstanding coral reefs in Southeast Asia, noting that in the 33,200 hectares of the Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park lies an atoll reef with a very high density of marine species, a phenomenon unique in the world and a site of irreplaceable universal value.

“Tubbataha” derives from two Samal words meaning “a long reef exposed only at low tide.” Tubbataha Reef, the only national marine park in the Philippines, is an underwater site consisting of two coral atolls with a 100-meter perpendicular wall covering an area of 10,000 hectares situated at the center of the Sulu Sea, about 150 kilometers southeast of Puerto Princesa City, and located in Cagayancillo. The Reef harbours a diversity of marine life greater than any other similar area in the world. The underwater abundance of Tubbataha is staggering. Marine biologists believe that its underwater gardens harbour a diversity of marine life that surpasses reefs of the same size in any other part of the world.”