Anilao Pier

A shallow search beside the pier

Blue Ribbon Divers describes Anilao Pier as a shallow night-diving location, with sand, seagrass patches, a pier wall and a small hard-coral area. Its listing gives a 5–10 m profile and a beginner-friendly classification.

What the operator reports

The account describes looking for small animals along the wall and across the sand, including crustaceans and cephalopods. These are reported possibilities, not guaranteed sightings. The page credits the guidebook Anilao Dive Sites by Ram Yoro and Andrew Marriott, so the operator page and that book should not be counted as independent confirmations.

Confirm access and the intended activity

This partial guide does not establish current entry arrangements, boat movements or a dependable current category. Confirm those details with the local team, especially for a night outing. A shallow profile alone does not establish that a particular visit or activity suits every diver.

Wall, coral patch and sandy plain

Blue Ribbon Divers describes three sections of the night dive: the pier wall, where crevices hold glass shrimp, banded coral shrimp, crabs and eels; a small hard-coral area where painted frogfish, pipefish and leaf scorpionfish are reported; and a sandy plain toward Majuben village with octopus, stargazers and bobtail squid. The page also mentions blackwater dives from the pier. These are the operator’s descriptions of possibilities, credited to the Anilao Dive Sites guidebook, not a particular night, a route or a current schedule.

Two dated accounts of the night habitat

In Tanya G. Burnett's August 2017 Alert Diver account, the group entered after sunset and explored rolling sand in roughly 3–4.6 metres of water. She describes Bobbit worms hunting, a coconut octopus sheltering between shell halves, and a small squid covering itself with sand. These observations show how the sediment itself can be the focus of a dive, rather than merely the space between reef structures. They belong to that outing, not to an encounter forecast or a prescribed depth plan.

Scott Bennett's February 2025 X-Ray Mag article describes a different outing in the bay, some distance from the jetty. His account places the group over silty ground with occasional branches and bottles, with no noticeable current and depths no greater than three metres that night. He reports burrowing eels and a Bobbit worm that withdrew when illuminated. This helps distinguish the broad site name from a promise to dive directly beneath the pier. The calm, shallow conditions of his visit do not override the need to establish the intended area and conditions with the local team.

Bluewater's spring 2025 workshop report separately describes its Anilao Pier night dive and offshore blackwater outings. Its offshore animal observations therefore should not be read as a checklist for the pier's seabed dive. Confirm which activity a proposed booking actually covers.