San Miguel

San Miguel's sandy slope and tyre reef

DDC describes a sandy slope and an older artificial reef made from tyres at San Miguel. La Tortue also lists a muck-diving route under the San Miguel name. Confirm the intended section rather than assuming every booking covers identical terrain.

Different maximum reports

DDC's named page gives shore access and a 20 m maximum; La Tortue lists 5–25 m. The difference is retained explicitly. The reviewed entries do not establish the earlier 30 m maximum or a measured average depth.

Before booking

Ask about the entry, planned depth and whether a proposed night dive follows the same route. A site's general experience label is not a universal qualification requirement. Wildlife associations without source-qualified observations remain unconfirmed, and no encounter rate or seasonal guarantee is established by this partial review.

Small habitats worth comparing

The sand is only part of the operator descriptions. DDC reports soft and hard corals on the older tyre structures, with frogfish and ghost pipefish among the animals using that habitat. Bongo Bongo's separate account draws attention to a submerged coconut trunk. These features offer different subjects within a muck-diving outing; their present condition and inclusion in a particular route have not been independently checked for this guide.

What the operators report

Bongo Bongo names hairy, painted and warty frogfish and small Costasiella sea slugs, often nicknamed Shaun the Sheep. DDC also highlights nudibranchs and harlequin shrimp. Treat these lists as reported possibilities rather than a checklist that a guide can guarantee. Neither account supplies survey effort, dated abundance measurements or an encounter percentage.

Match the route to the depth account

Bongo Bongo's named San Miguel page lists an 18 m maximum, adding a shallower figure to DDC's 20 m and La Tortue's 25 m. That difference is useful to discuss when booking; it does not establish that any one operator has surveyed the entire site. For a proposed night dive, confirm which section and features are included, rather than assuming the daytime and night descriptions refer to identical outings.

A closer look at the artificial habitat

In a June 2026 account published by Atlantis, Tiani Dun describes ropes as well as tyres on San Miguel's sandy slope. Marine growth covered these structures, and the group found a small frogfish camouflaged among ropes and coral. Dun also reports seahorses and ornate ghost pipefish during that visit. This is a named visitor account of the artificial habitat, not a current inventory or a guarantee that the same animals remain there.

Sources and review status

Dauin Diving Center; La Tortue Diving Center. Published sources reviewed on 4 and 5 October 2026; no local-diver verification is claimed. Retrieval dates are not field-observation dates.