Ko-ok

Ko-ok: a partial South Atoll guide

Palau Sport lists Ko-ok Point in Tubbataha's South Atoll, while Master Liveaboards uses the spelling Ko-Ok. Their accounts describe a reef transitioning into a wall. Master mentions a sandy reef top, coral formations and fans along the wall; Palau Sport highlights ledges and openings.

Reading the dive profile

Master's depth figures refer to different parts of the terrain. They do not establish one compulsory route or a surveyed whole-site depth range. Its account also describes current strength as variable. Confirm the intended route and depth with the operating boat rather than treating the reef description as a dive plan.

Wildlife and evidence limits

The Philippine Aggressor log dated 21 March 2026 records Ko-ok visits with reef sharks, turtles and schooling fish. Those observations show what one trip reported; they do not establish how often a species is seen. This is a partial guide, and current conditions, precise entry coordinates and a universally applicable experience requirement have not been verified here. Existing names refer to the Tubbataha record, not an unrelated similarly named reef.

Where the park places it, and the terrace figures

The Tubbataha Management Office surveyed a Ko-ok station in April 2019, described as the northern part of South Atoll, and again in June 2023 (Ecosystem Research and Monitoring Report 2024); its 2025 shark survey, which spells the site "Kook", ran two transects of about 845 and 804 metres here. Master Liveaboards' itinerary gives the terrace figures referred to above: a sandy-terraced reef top starting at about 3–8 metres and sloping to 18 metres before the wall. Those are feature depths from one operator, not a surveyed site range, and the wall depth is not stated.

Dated accounts of the fish schools

Stephen Frink's Alert Diver article of 1 August 2018 says the schools of jacks at Ko-ok were even more impressive than at Malayan Wreck on his early-May trip, with an approachable hawksbill and portrait chances with clown triggerfish and regal angelfish. The WWF Coral Triangle blog's dive of 13 April 2009 was briefed for jacks, barracuda and bumphead parrotfish; the boat dropped the divers 100 metres behind a bumphead school, but the current changed direction and the group saw an eagle ray and many blue triggerfish instead. The Philippine Aggressor II log of 21 March 2026 records a nurse shark on the bottom, a large school of milkfish in open water and reef sharks in the current; the Philippine Aggressor log of the same date adds a pygmy seahorse, sailfin snappers, bumphead parrotfish and red-toothed triggerfish, and the Aggressor II log of 30 May 2026 dived a site it calls "Ko-ok West" with triggerfish, sharks and nudibranchs. Dive The World describes Ko-Ok as a calmer, critter-rich coral garden with frogfish and pygmy seahorses in the fans, in contrast to the stronger-current sites.

Reading these together

Operator and visitor accounts describe both schooling fish and macro life, and the 2009 account shows a planned drift being reversed by a change of current. Palau Sport's mention of nurse and hammerhead sharks passing ledges is an operator statement. Which part of Ko-ok is dived, and in which direction, is decided by the boat on the day.