Tangkaan Point

Tangkaan Point: clarify the named reef route

Tangkaan Point is used as an area heading in Peter's Dive Resort's Southern Leyte guide. Under it, the operator discusses Medicare North and South separately from Turtle Rock, Heaven's Gate and Santa Sofia. The descriptions include coral reefs and routes with differing depths and conditions. They should not automatically be treated as one interchangeable dive site.

Before booking

Ask the operator which named section a Tangkaan Point booking covers, where the boat will enter and collect the group, and what depth and current are expected. Match that itinerary to your experience rather than relying on a general area label.

Identity and depth limitations

This partial guide preserves the existing Tangkaan Point record. It does not confirm that Heaven's Gate, Turtle Rock or Tangkaan MPA North are exact aliases. A single minimum or maximum depth has not been established for this record's boundaries. Marine-life sightings and conditions can differ between routes and visits.

What the name covers in other sources

Several sources treat Tangkaan Point as a dive site in its own right while attaching different names to it. Divebooker's dive-site page says the Tangkaan Point dive site, "located at the tip of Southern Leyte, is also called Heaven's Gate", describes "a steep wall that drops down to a depth of 40m" covered in soft corals, sponges and anemones with many nudibranchs, and lists visibility to 30 m and water of 25 to 30 C. Teresa Zubi's starfish.ch page (information added in 2003; Wayback snapshot of 19 February 2025) lists "Heaven's gate" as a steep slope at the very tip of southern Leyte covered with soft corals, sponges and anemones, with many nudibranch species, and adds: "This dive site is also called Tangkaan point (Tanka-an)." An SSI MyDiveGuide entry credited to Mares calls Tangka-an Point "a peninsular dive spot on the southern tip of Padre Burgos" whose exposure "from the south, east, and west make for a good drift dive when the currents pick up". Peter's Dive Resort's PADI listing describes Tangkaan Point as "a long land mass with steep hills sloping abruptly into the sea" with rocky cliffs and bluffs, varied reefs and underwater walls, and shallow coral gardens for snorkellers. None of these pages says which section Peter's own Tangkaan Point heading refers to, so the alias questions in this record remain open.

Operator and visitor descriptions of the Tangkaan sanctuary

Sogod Bay Scuba Resort's blog post "Diving at Tankaan (Marine Protected Area)", published 31 August 2010, describes a wall dive and a 45 degree coral slope dropping to about 27 metres, an outcrop halfway along, barrel sponges, green tree corals, big table corals and gorgonian fans, with black frogfish often seen perched on green tree corals, batfish, pygmy seahorses, nudibranchs and turtles. The same resort's current map data lists "Tangkaan MPA North" at 5 to 30 metres, 15 to 25 minutes by boat, for all levels. Padre Burgos Castle Resort's page says that at Tangkaan the sandy seabed drops steeply from 6 metres to around 30 metres. Diver Bliss, a guide by Ara Juan first published in May 2022 and updated to July 2026, calls Tangkaan a wall dive south of Padre Burgos where "strong currents may be expected here on some occasions". A ScubaBoard trip report of 29 August 2025 from Peter's Dive Resort logged a Tangkaan Point dive to a maximum of 49 feet over 63 minutes and recorded visible damage from Typhoon Odette, with tipped boulders, rubble slopes and fish cages with ropes through the coral; that is one diver's profile and observation on one day, not a site range.