One of the greatest things about Atmosphere Resorts when it comes to scuba diving is our amazing house reef. We are blessed with a healthy reef with great muck diving right in our own backyard. Or maybe we should call it “front yard” as it is right in front of the resort?
Although the Dauin coast here on Negros Oriental has some amazing dive sites, we have many guests who request to dive our house reef multiple times, because there is so much to see!
At the moment we are lucky to have a few resident frogfish that keep our dive guides on their toes. We regularly see jawfish at the house reef, sometimes with hundreds of eggs brooding in their mouths. Some other regular sightings include Banded pipefish, Robust ghost pipefish, Ornate ghost pipefish, Broad club cuttlefish, Blue spotted stingrays, and numerous schools of fish. One of our highlights is the Turtle-headed sea snake that feasts on fish eggs all across the reef.
March has brought us some good luck, with many Randall’s frogfish and Painted frogfish. They don’t move around much, but because they are so small, it still takes a keen eye to find them, even if you know where they’re supposed to be.
We also had a pair of Harlequin shrimp and, more recently, a pair of Flamboyant cuttlefish that have claimed the containers as their home.
We also have some interesting crustaceans, such as the Halimeda crab, Candy crab, Harlequin crab, Orangutan crab, and plenty of Hairy squat lobsters. And let’s not forget the two resident pygmy seahorses and the turtles that very often come by.
Next time you’re at Atmosphere, sign up for a shore dive or two and come explore the house reef with us, we’re finding new critters all the time!
Your marine biologist /Daniel
