Pearl Farm Wrecks

Pearl Farm Wrecks is listed as a Davao-area dive site in a South Shore Divers contribution to PADI. This partial guide uses the site name and map position from that source. The location has not been independently confirmed by a local diver.

The source name is retained without confirming vessel identities, Japanese or World War II history, wreck count or penetration access. No alias with Malipano Japanese wrecks is established.

Current access, entry arrangements, depth limits, currents, visibility and seasonal conditions remain unconfirmed. Confirm the exact site, current local conditions and a suitable dive plan with a local operator.

Wrecks in front of the resort

Two dated accounts describe Japanese wrecks lying directly in front of Pearl Farm Beach Resort, beside the small Malipano islands. Dive Happy's Davao feature, first printed in Scuba Diver AustralAsia in 2008 and republished online in July 2009, says two WWII-era Japanese wrecks lie directly in front of the resort in murky conditions that make them only of interest to wreck enthusiasts; on that dive the writer saw a sea snake racing across the deck of one wreck and the biggest lionfish the writer had ever seen. Travel writer Benjie Layug's post of 20 May 2009, written during a stay at the resort, says the wrecks of two World War II Japanese freighters lie 60 metres away in front of the resort: Wreck I, 40 metres long, a few metres from the resort's Samal houses in 35 metres of water, with groupers, jacks and moray eels and an open bay hatch that allows penetration for advanced divers; and the slightly smaller Wreck II, 35 metres long, resting on its side in 28 metres of water.

Whether this is that site

PADI's entry, credited to South Shore Divers, also speaks of two sunken Japanese vessels from World War II that have become artificial reefs, names lionfish, barracudas and sometimes reef sharks, and gives 25 metres as the maximum depth while listing PADI Advanced Open Water Diver and PADI Wreck Diver as useful training. The PADI depth does not match the 35 and 28 metres in Layug's account; the difference is recorded here and not reconciled. Nor does this guide assert that PADI's Pearl Farm Wrecks point and the wrecks described in front of the resort are the same place. A DivePlanner Pro page read in October 2026 instead describes sunken structures and pearl-farming equipment at 25 metres, which contradicts every other source and is treated as unreliable derivative text. Separately, a diver's online logbook records a 29 June 2008 dive at Pearl Farm Beach Resort on a site called Marissa I, a tug sunk on purpose with crane debris alongside; that is a differently named site and is not treated here as one of the Pearl Farm Wrecks. A Davao Today list of November 2005 names both Malipano Island and Pearl Farm among Davao Gulf dive spots, and the 2007 ScubaBoard report names Wind and Wave as the resort's dive operation at that time. Dive Happy's murky-water remark is a dated observation; ask the operator about current visibility, depth and whether any penetration is planned.