Article in Dive Magazine 2012, by Linda Ferwerda
The water turns blue when I arrive at Magic Island Dive Resort. Of course, you think. The water in Moalboal is always blue. But this is just different.
I walk down the stairs to the water. It is dark and the blue water is getting closer. A little later, two divers enthusiastically enter the diving center with a blue luminous dive lamp. Through the yellow lense over their diving mask they look the part. Arie Hoogendoorn together with Desiree Pullens owner of the resort in Moalboal on the island of Cebu, sees me watching. “No, this is not your jetleg,” he says laughing. “They just made a fluoro dive”.
A few days later, I’m ready for a night dive on the house reef. Yellow lense on, fluoro lamp in hand. Together with Desiree we are going to explore the house reef, again but this time is different. As we walk into the water and shine the lights onto the bottom, I see light organisms light up. I walk carefully. During the briefing, it was made clear that there are also things I do not see in this special light. Once the water is deep enough to swim we go down. Here and there, corals light up bright green, the fluorescent blocks on islands on the bottom. Desiree points to the little life in the sand. Occasionally it is even a bit kitschy how the flatworms shine. Is this the same house reef I’ve already experienced night diving? I do not recognize it anymore. The closer we get to the edge of the ridge, the greater the coral formations that light up in the blue sky. Strange. I slide the yellow spectacle up and shine with my regular lamp on the coral.