Marine life is close to our hearts at Atmosphere

At Atmosphere, we are fortunate to be situated alongside the warm waters of the Philippine Sea on the coast of Dauin, with its incredible variety of critter species – and just across from Apo Island with its world-famous coral reefs. There is no surprise that workshops and courses focusing on our incredible marine life and critters are in high demand at Atmosphere Resorts & Spa.

We have our own in-house marine biologist who dives with our guests. Marine life presentations are held several evenings per week giving guests an insight into the incredible critters of Dauin, the history of Apo Island and the problems our oceans are facing with plastic pollution (among other topics!).

We are keen to get to know our local turtles, and encourage guests to submit photos of the individuals they have encountered. Our marine biologist will search our database to check whether we have seen an individual before, if not, you’re free to name that turtle! Our images are also submitted to a much larger database hosted by LAMAVE, a local marine conservation charity.

Want to know more? For a small fee, our marine biologist will dive exclusively with you and share her passion and knowledge of the marine environment. Do your kids love the underwater world? We also offer programs for children!

PADI Distinctive Specialty courses at Atmosphere

We are very excited that two critter packed PADI distinctive specialty courses have been created at Atmosphere Resorts & Spa

Critters of Dauin PADI Distinctive Specialty

Are you a diver who loves cryptic and colourful critters and would like to know more about what makes them tick? Do you think “how on earth did they find that?” when your dive guide points out a tiny hairy shrimp? Then this specialty is for you. Created by our in-house marine biologist Kirsty Richards, the course begins with an engaging presentation, followed by two exciting critter hunt dives.

Participants will learn about the biology, ecology and defining characteristics of species within the main taxonomic groups. They will learn how to identify local species by their intricate differences, and also be let in to the secrets our dive guides use to locate even the smallest and cryptic of critters, and how to best encounter them while limiting our potential environmental impact.

Frogfish Specialist PADI Distinctive Specialty

The PADI Frogfish Specialty course was created at Atmosphere Resorts & Spa by Daniel Geary, and has been very popular throughout the years. The course has two dives and some very interesting theory bits where you will learn about species, sizes, behavior, how to find them and much more. Where better to do so then in frogfish-packed Dauin, and better yet at Atmosphere, where the house reef is a paradise for frogfish lovers!

You may want to time your course to frogfish season, February to June is the best time of the year for frogfish!

Marine conservation and environmental awareness

We are lucky at Atmosphere to have a spectacular and protected house reef, along with several more small marine sanctuaries spread along Dauin’s coast.

Our dive centre has a no-touch, no gloves, no feeding, no anchoring policy, and we actively show and promote a diving etiquette video (watch below) to inform our guests.

We kindly ask our guests to collect trash they encounter whilst diving, and conduct regular clean-up dives on our house reef, logging our findings with Project Aware’s global Dive for Debris database. Our beach cleaning station also encourages guests to fill one bucket with trash from the beach in return for a free buko (coconut) juice!

Our in-house marine biologist presents educational talks several times a week, raising awareness with our guests on key topics such as coral reef conservation, plastic pollution, and encouraging them to support marine conservation efforts.