The Undercurrent

     Monday, January 16th.  I was up by 5:30am, an hour earlier than my regular Monday schedule (unless my running practice falls on a Monday).  I woke up early on purpose to watch the sunrise.  It’s not like everyday I get to see the sun ascend in the southernmost part of the Philippines so I had to check it out.  This was the start of a 5-day diving expedition that I got myself involved in, the main objective was to collect specimens of sponges and seasquirts for anti-cancer agents.  Don’t worry I won’t be dealing with that in this journal.  Let a microbiologist write about that.  I on the other hand will be writing about the dives.  I wouldn’t be entirely honest if I were to say that my main and only goal in having joined this expedition was to help search for specimens that could help cure cancer and thus save mankind. How noble indeed of me if I were to say that, but I am no knight of the round table and although that was what was asked of me to do (and I’m pretty sure I did a good job) the more personal reason for me was to see if the Sulu Sea is really as beautiful as they say it is.   But the sunrise was unfortunately gloomy today.  Overcast skies that obstructed what could have been a majestic rising sun could be an ominous sign of things to come.

           At 9am, we were still loading stuffs in the boat.  The sun still has not shone brightly and the excited mood that I had was slipping away.  ETA for the first dive was at 9 and my body clock had already set itself on that schedule.  But a lot of things had to be considered, hence the delay was justifiable and nothing I can do but reset my body clock.  17 minutes after and we were off to our first dive site which was just about more or less two or three kilometers from the port.  It would have been surprising diving near a port if you live in a big city but hey, this is an island.  Sans the trash that you see floating on the waters of the port, the water has a distinct clarity that is only possible in pristine coastal areas.

            Another 23mins after and field project leader Mel, with GPS in hand, has gestured the boatmaster to stop.  Our first dive site was just fronting the municipality of Bongao.  After checking the water conditions (currents in tawitawi can be extremely strong and hazardous), assigned safety diver Benny gave the green light.  And with that signal, I jumped right into the water without having donned my gears.  It was not excitement that drove me to do it though.  The heat from wearing a wetsuit had become almost unbearable already that I needed to cool myself.

            A few minutes later and Mel and I were off.  We will be the first to descend from a group of 10 to locate a suitable place to lay the transect line (for non-research divers, a transect line is a tape measure reeled out on the seafloor/reef area to be considered as the base or reference point for the survey being conducted).  This transect line is crucial also for the collectors so that they wouldn’t stray far from the group during the dive.  Reeling out a transect line was no sweat as it has always been my assignment during reef assessments.  “First one in, more dive time for me” has been my saying over the years.

            The dive was disappointing though.  After swimming through a maze of garbage (organic and nonbiodegradable ones), we were descending on turbid water.  The only consolation was that at least it was sand, not silt, so it was the wave action that had caused the poor visibility.  At 30 feet, things were at least getting clearer.  The site does not have a rocky-coralline substrate but it was a sandy one hence the turbidity.  Then it occurred to me that this was not a fun dive expedition.  Sponges and seasquirts are filter feeders and in fact may be abundant in this kind of habitat where there are a lot of suspended particles.  I keep thinking “oh s@%t”, I had to endure a 13hour bus ride and another 16 hour boat ride for 5days of diving like this?  I consoled myself by saying that this is the dirty work that could someday find the cure for cancer.  Didn’t work!

            After more than an hour, a bit disappointed but with the collected specimens in my net bag slightly cheering me up, I ascended.  Drat!  I was better off diving in industrialized Northern Mindanao I thought.

           The afternoon dive was bit farther from the port and in a less populated part of Bongao.  My excitement had been thrown overboard already after a dismal first dive.  I wasn’t that excited anymore but I had to work.  “Find the cure for cancer dude!” was what I keep playing in my head over and over.  After Mel got in the water and signaled for me to follow suit, I did, not excitedly this time though.  The only difference with this dive is I got to bring an underwater camera.  I did not bring the underwater camera that was issued to me by our office (bad idea) but good thing the expedition needed one diver to take some pictures using their while at the same time collect and so I was assigned to it.  This was not the same camera that I use, although they are of the same brand, so my attention was diverted on how to play with this new toy.

             While descending, I did not mind my surroundings as looking at it from the surface it had the same features as the previous site albeit much clearer.  Probably another boring dive so I just busied myself tinkering with the camera and learning the controls.  After touching down at the bottom and looking at the surroundings for the first time, I was dumbfounded.  True, it had the same features as that of the previous site but this one was full of colors and very much alive.  Hand corals were dancing rhythmically to the beat of the slight surge side-by-side with a steadfast and rigid branching corals that didn’t seem to mind being situated beside a prima ballerina.  A big ribbon sweetlips came out of nowhere to welcome me and beckoned me to his world.  While I was laying the transect, life abound everywhere I look.  Even under small nooks and crannies, there were nudibranch and colorful shrimps and crabs.  I was so engrossed with the abundance of life that I forgot that I was primarily there to work and not play.  I was still able to collect targeted specimens though and with more than an hour of dive time (last man out again) and with my air almost falling below the 500psi mark I reluctantly went up bringing with me the beauty that my eyes and the camera lens captured.

             After the dive, my previously conceived notion of this week (owing to a gloomy sunrise and dreary first dive) had been erased.  On the way home, I was dreamily sitting at the bow of the boat contented on how the day ended.  Indeed it started poorly but the thing about life is that no matter how it starts it isn’t always how it will end.

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“UNSA?! NABUANG KA NA?! (WHAT? ARE YOU CRAZY?)” were my mom’s exact expression when I told her more than a week ago that I was joining a dive expedition in tawi-tawi.  She told me, people are trying to avoid the place because of the domestic wars and kidnappings going on there and I on the other hand was heading there to embark on a 5 day diving trip.  I must have been out of my mind for that.

            Indeed, the islands have been in the international limelight lately because of a series of high profile kidnappings staged by bandits and terrorists who have transformed this part of the Philippines into an international kidnap-for-ransom district.  With the military bent on putting an end to these bandits, gunfights erupt here and there and sensationalized reports of the media of these had led to the island being named as one of the places definitely to be avoided.  Looking at a map in the internet, it was even marked with 3 red flags I think, indicative of the current peace and order situation of the area.

            Disregarding the red flags found in the map, one can see that tawi-tawi is located in the Sulu and Celebes Seas.  One of the, if not, the most diverse seas in the whole planet.  Probably one of the best dive sites in the country and they have to put red flags on it.  Red flag or not, I absolutely went.  I am not going to miss this opportunity to sink my weight and explore the depths of one of the global hotspot for biodiversity for a red flag.

            So lugging a very big gear bag and a pack bag for my things, my fellow marine biologist and dive buddy, i-i, boarded the 10pm bus for a 13hour trip to Zamboanga city where we would meet the first batch of UP team (YES, thats 13hour in one sitting position in the bus, comfy huh?).  But we never thought of the inconvenience of sitting 13hours in the bus trip nor the dangers that have been said or written about the place where we were headed.  If the latter were indeed true and not exaggerated, I was very sure that the dive was worth the risk anyway.

            In Zamboanga City, we were met by the projects main field coordinator, Mel (a.ka. Melvin accdg to mon).  I have only talked to this guy on the phone once but his mild disposition makes one feel that you’ve known him for a long time.  In one of the hotels in Zamboanga City, I met the first batch of UP people who are part of this expedition (the enjoyable kalog Irene (a.ka. host of the night), serious looking ate henya (ms luha), and meljun (a.k.a. walang babae-babae sa basketball guy).  After a coffee spree and walking the streets of Zamboanga, we were then on a ship bound for Bongao, Tawi-tawi.

            It was in Bongao where I met all members of this expedition.  The second batch of UP people (the charming microbiologist jasmine, the friendly and lighthearted biochemist diane, serious gina and cool and composed safety diver benny) arrived the next day by plane.  The local team were composed of the booming-voiced but friendly natured Rasul of WWF-tawitawi, twin eggs, mon and mil (ladies enemy numbers 1 & 2,hehe no offense intended), the rowdy-looking but in reality responsible and hard-working MSU dudes (ahmed, paul ryan “in the house yo” and tolits), the demure (daw?) MSU dudettes (che, let, mary, and those in the lab I who I didn’t get the names except for swem), and the motherly and great cook for the expedition ate connie.

            So it was a week of diving (I’ll write a separate blog for my dive experience), collecting and sorting specimens and overnight lab work for the microbiologists.  In between shut-eyes and work stuffs are small talks lasting in the wee hours of the morning and memorable events that have made this trip a serious yet fun expedition.  The whole activity was capped with a one evening party and videoke trip at mountain view resort voluntarily emceed by the bubbly Irene (who did one hell of a job), with singing performances of i-i as kyla, love-“songers” paul and meljune, sing and dance guru diane, natalie-like jas, lost aegis member ate henya, balladeer benny, veteran “my humps” move of mon (favorite dance move ni Irene) air supplier rasul and the stunning performance of the rockstar (laklak singer) mel.

            We were having so much fun as a group that there had to be an encore for this expedition.  Hence, at 5am in the morning, despite the lack of sleep and slight beer in the system, I was up (thanks to the phone alarm of paul who woke me up but didn’t even budge him) preparing for a short trek to Bongao peak which according to ahmed was just a 30minute walk from the base of the hill.  On the way to the top, 30 mins had elapsed and we were still halfway thanks to the muddy and slippery trail which gave most of us crash course lessons in baseball slides and home runs for diane.  The view at the top was definitely worth all the slips, laborious trek and mosquito bites that were endured during the 1 hour climb.

            Six days has passed, yet the bond that I was able to forge with those I had been and the experience and lessons learned from that 6days would last me my lifetime. I cannot say for certain what the peace and order situation in the whole tawi-tawi islands is but in Bongao and the islands we dove, people I’ve met there speak the language of peace in their hearts.

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