Tubbataha Reef
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How it came to be
Tubbataha lies in the middle of the Sulu Sea, 150 km southeast of Puerto Princesa in Palawan, and is made up of two atolls and the smaller Jessie Beazley Reef to the north. Its name means a long reef exposed at low tide in the Sama-Bajau language, and fishers from Cagayancillo long sailed there.
When motorboats spread in the 1980s, fishing boats crowded in, some using cyanide and dynamite. After a campaign by divers and environmental groups, President Corazon Aquino declared it a national marine park on 11 August 1988, the first time the Philippines made a marine area a national park.
Tubbataha was inscribed in 1993, and in 2006 the park was enlarged to take in Jessie Beazley Reef. Its reefs hold 360 coral species, almost 90 percent of those known in the Philippines, and turtles and seabirds nest on its islets. Armed rangers live on the reef in rotating teams.
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