The Moalboal sardine run
A shoal of several million sardines twenty metres from shore, visible while snorkelling.
Duration
2 hrs – 4 hrs
Best time
Early morning
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
The Moalboal sardine run is a permanent phenomenon: several million fish hold station about twenty metres off Panagsama shore, above the drop-off, all year round. The shoal moves in walls and vortices that close around a swimmer.
It is reachable by snorkelling straight from the beach, with no boat: one of the few spectacles of its kind you can swim to. Not to be confused with Oslob on the other coast, where whale sharks are fed each morning to keep them in place — a practice widely condemned by biologists.
Getting there
Panagsama beach at Moalboal, three hours by road from Cebu City. The shoal is twenty metres out, reachable by swimming.
What to bring
- Mask and snorkel
- Swimsuit
Rules on site
The drop-off falls away sharply a few metres out and the current can carry you seaward: swim with someone and keep the shore in sight. The whale shark feeding at Oslob is contested by biologists — that is a different site, and a different choice.