Sardine

Photo: sharkdevotee · CC BY-NC

Massive sardine baitballs form around Sumilon Island throughout the year, creating a living vortex that obscures ambient light and attracts a cascade of predators including trevally, barracuda, and needlefish. The schooling behaviour is a predator-confusion strategy but also a spectacle that ranks among the most dramatic fish encounters available to recreational divers in the Philippines.