After 12 months, I was back again in Looc Fish Sanctuary. This time with colleagues from Manila. Except for a few interesting species of fish that lurked under the floating raft and the view of stranded ship in the distance, nothing much has changed. 

No, we can't make it. Yes, we can.

I was chanting these lines in my head on our way to Looc aboard a knotty motorcycle. Our driver understood how crucial it was for us to reach Looc before 4:30PM and so he went full throttle but his motorcycle could only do so much. Apparently, it wasn't meant for long-distance travel. He changed the vehicle into a more road-fit one, allowing us to keep up with the rest of the team whose motorcycles were kilometers ahead of us. Err - no, that wasn't exactly the case. They actually pulled over and waited for us to make sure we were all right. Then they let us go first, and after a few seconds we were at the tail end again.

With the rate we were going, I didn't think that we could reach Looc before the sanctuary closed for the day. But somehow we did. We arrived in town a few minutes past four. I told my travel mates to hurry since the sanctuary was about to close. Chop, chop, people! After throwing our stuff carelessly in a vacant room at Angelique Inn, we sprinted towards the port. The guys, who are called BayWatchers (watchers of the sanctuary), at the registration office told us we almost didn't make it. They were closing much earlier that day because there was an advice from their boss. I heaved a sigh of relief.
After paying 100 pesos (entrance fee), a Baywatch officer ushered us to a boat at the far end of the port. It's a big boat, one that can carry at most 15 people. The transfer to the sanctuary took less than 10 minutes.

The fish, lots of them, seemed to have sensed our arrival - they excitedly swam to the small opening of the raft. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring bread so we didn't have anything to offer them except for crumbs of Rin-bee which they didn't like. Masyadong choosy! Haha. In our haste to beat the closing time, I completely forgot about buying bread. The last time I went here with a friend, we also didn't bring any food.
These fish have apparently relied on bread crumbs that tourists give them. They've gone oh-so-lazy. I bet none of them has ever tried to leave the sanctuary because of the comfort the place provides. The sanctuary as an attraction doesn't have much to offer other than the abundance of fish. The corals underneath are pretty non-existent.

I learned from a tour guide in El Nido that feeding the fish is one way to destroy the corals. He explained that when fish are being fed, they tend to leave the corals, which need them. Corals develop algae that serves as fish food. When algae grows thicker, the coral won't be able to sustain life. Okay, I'm not sure if my explanation makes any sense but I hope you get my drift. :-)

A famous travel blogger, Edgar of EasyTraveller, has complained online during his recent trip to Tablas about how the sanctuary didn't allow underwater camera. Doesn't make sense, if it's true. My friend had an underwater camera when we went here and she took us a few photos underwater. The guides didn't seem to mind.


One of them even helped retrieve a mask which slipped from our friend's hands and plummeted several feet down. He could probably have retrieved trade printers at the bottom of the ocean if we had seen any.

We stayed at the floating raft for about 45 minutes. We snorkeled to our heart's content and played with the fish. We laughed and had a good time.





The sun was about to set. It was our cue to leave. Besides our stomach was grumbling.







In the evening, we went to the local peryahan (small carnival) where we placed bets.
We went back to the inn with some missing coins.