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Hotels, dive operators, gear, and how to get here are on the Moalboal location page.
Overview
A resident year-round bait ball of millions of sardines off Panagsama Beach. The school swirls along the wall in 5 to 15 m, easily accessible from shore. Thresher sharks and jacks occasionally drive the ball into formations.
What you'll see
4 species curated- year-roundSardines (resident school)
- year-roundBigeye trevally
- year-roundHawksbill turtle
- rarePelagic thresher shark
Sightings evidence
1 record on file- high confidenceSardines (bait ball)
- Last confirmed
- May 2026
- Recent records
- 312 within 5 km
- Cluster months
- Year-round
The Panagsama bait ball is resident year-round; size fluctuates with predator pressure.
Sources & methodology
How we summarise this
We aggregate confirmed occurrence records from GBIF and OBIS within a fixed radius of each dive site. Occurrence records confirm presence and reveal seasonality clustering, but they DO NOT measure per-dive probability — there is no eligible-effort denominator. We deliberately do not publish a numeric '% chance of sighting' from this data.
Sources
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility — GBIF Secretariat
- Ocean Biodiversity Information System — IOC-UNESCO
- OBIS-SEAMAP — Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab / OBIS
- iNaturalist — California Academy of Sciences & National Geographic Society
- IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature
- WoRMS — World Register of Marine Species — Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
- FishBase — FishBase Consortium
- Atlas of Living Australia — CSIRO / GBIF Australia
- REEF Volunteer Fish Survey — Reef Environmental Education Foundation
Conditions
| Month | Water | Visibility | Current |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 26–28 °C | 15–25 m | mild |
| Feb | 26–28 °C | 15–25 m | mild |
| Mar | 27–29 °C | 20–30 m | mild |
| Apr | 28–30 °C | 20–30 m | mild |
| May | 28–30 °C | 20–30 m | mild |
| Jun | 28–30 °C | 15–25 m | mild |
| Jul | 27–29 °C | 10–20 m | mild |
| Aug | 27–29 °C | 10–20 m | mild |
| Sep | 27–29 °C | 10–20 m | mild |
| Oct | 27–29 °C | 15–25 m | mild |
| Nov | 27–29 °C | 15–25 m | mild |
| Dec | 26–28 °C | 15–25 m | mild |
Season calendar
Peak season highlighted · current month outlined
Gear for this site
Beyond the basic kit- Wide-angle camera setup — Sardine ball at 10 m demands a wide angle to capture scale.
Next step
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