Located in the Philippines, Sulu Sea, the Tubbataha Reef has became a protected marine park on August 11th, 1988.
This marine park, with an area of 968 km2 was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in December 1993.
In Sama language, Tubbataha means “a long reef emerged at low tide.” Indeed, this reef is composed of two parts, and each part has a small island on its center. However, the islands are very small and located far from the coast (the reef is located 181km from Puerto Princesa, the nearest city port), which make them difficult to reach for fishermen and population. If you want to imagine the Tubbataha Reef, try to picture yourself two tiny islands of maximum 2 meters, in the middle of Sulu Sea
This isolation has allowed the Tubbataha reef to maintain a high level of biodiversity along an abundance of incredible life.
Underwater, it is possible to encounter more than one thousand different species of fish, from the tiny anthias to the gigantic whale shark. All of them floating beyond the incredible coral which is composing the seabed.
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