| Site Type: | Coral wall |
| Depth: | Top: 10M Bottom: 30M |
| Location: | Southern end of Verde Island |
Verde Island is located north east of Puerto Galera in the Verde Island Passage. Washed by clear water and strong currents, Verde Island has some wonderful dive sites, including the impressive Verde Island Drop-off. Warned of the strong surface currents, we quickly descend down the coral wall, ready to drift along the Verde Island Drop-off.
At first the current was very strong, but we still had time to admire the wonderful corals and sponges as we zoomed along this underwater cliff face. Protruding from the drop-off were black coral trees, soft corals, gorgonians, sea whips and large barrel sponges.
Swarming all around the coral were masses of reef fish. Schools of basslets were packed together around the gorgonians, while clouds of blue triggerfish hovered above the reef and darted into a hole when we got close. We could also see pufferfish, titan triggerfish, trevally, scorpionfish and in one crevasse were a dozen lionfish. We even had a brief encounter with a banded sea snake.
After a while the current dropped off, allowing us to more closely explore the nooks and crannies of the drop-off. Poking around we spotted blennies, hawkfish and several moray eels.
But I was most impressed by the nudibranchs. Similar to other dive sites off Puerto Galera there were nudibranchs everywhere, you just had to spend time looking for them amongst the corals. All too soon this incredible dive ended, a magic ride along the Verde Island Drop-off.
