Hilutungan Island Sanctuary

Hilutungan Island Sanctuary

Hilutungan, also written Gilutongan in Scotty's Action Sports Network's account, is an island marine-sanctuary diving destination reached from Mactan, Cebu. The operator describes a shallow reef top and a steeply sloping wall rather than a uniformly vertical drop.

Choose the reef section

Scotty's reports the reef top at about 2 metres and terrain extending to 50 metres and beyond. These are descriptions of the reef, not a recommended dive profile or a verified maximum. The deeper extent remains unresolved; the shallow reef and deeper wall require different trip planning.

The account reports schools of reef fish and turtle sightings, with photography and snorkeling among the activities offered. These reports do not guarantee an encounter, current visibility or conditions on your travel date.

Confirm the planned route, sanctuary access arrangements and fees with your operator. Ask what is included in the trip and where the boat departs. Distances quoted from Scotty's Shangri-La base should not be treated as travel distances from every Mactan dive centre. Current prices and availability have not been independently confirmed in this partial guide.

A municipal sanctuary with a long paper trail

Hilutungan is spelled Gilutongan or Gilutungan in official and academic records. Proceedings of a Philippines-Indonesia workshop on community-based marine sanctuaries, published in September 2000, record a 15 hectare sanctuary along the western coastline of Gilutongan Island under the municipality of Cordova, established in 1991 by Municipal Resolution 91-93, with enforcement that ran from 1992 to 1995 before the sanctuary existed only in name, a sanctuary ordinance amended and passed on 31 May 1999, mooring and boundary buoys installed at the formal launch, and a further ordinance of 11 November 1999 setting user fees. A 2015 paper in the BIMP-EAGA Journal for Sustainable Tourism Development describes a 14.89 hectare reserve with a protected core zone and a 20 metre buffer zone where tourism is permitted, an Environmental User Fee system under Municipal Ordinance No. 004-2008 that shares revenue between the municipality and Barangay Gilutongan, and warns that mass tourism was becoming a serious problem. Those are the fee rules as documented in 2000, 2008 and 2015; current rates and zoning must be confirmed with the Cordova municipal office or your operator.

Dated fee and visit reports

An Adrenaline Romance island-hopping post of 3 July 2013 reports that snorkelling in the sanctuary cost 100 pesos per person at that time and that the fees pay the Bantay Dagat personnel who guard the area; the same writer notes that the water becomes choppy and murky in rainy or windy months. A philippinedives.com guide captured in March 2026 lists a 100 to 300 peso range depending on activity. Scotty's Action Sports Network's page, captured in December 2023, quotes about 11 kilometres from its Shangri-La base, a two hour trip including one dive and a two person minimum, while Green Sea Divers' blog of August 2011 quotes 35 to 40 minutes by outrigger and Scubago quotes 30 minutes. Travel times depend on the departure point.

Reef shape and fish life in the sources

Scotty's describes the reef top starting around 2 metres and a sloping, not vertical, wall continuing beyond 50 metres; Green Sea Divers described a wall from 5 to 40 metres with water of 27 to 29 degrees Celsius on its 2011 page. Scotty's and Kontiki Divers list the same species, including turtles, parrotfish, batfish, drummers, ribbon sweetlips and black and midnight snappers, so those lists are one lineage. Seven Seas Dive Center's 2020 page says the reefs are patrolled by wardens and that no touching or harassment is permitted, and theDiveGlobe states that fish feeding is common here, a practice not verified for your visit. None of these reports promises an encounter.