Tubbataha Reefs

The Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park occupies a unique position in the middle of the Sulu Sea, in the municipality of Cagayancillo, Palawan, and includes the Tubbataha reefs and Jessie Beazley Reef. UNESCO inscribed it on the World Heritage List in 1993 and the property was extended in 2009.

It is one of the few remaining examples of an almost pristine coral reef of extremely high diversity. It lies at the heart of the Coral Triangle, the region of greatest coral diversity on the planet, and protects three atolls, extensive reef flats and lagoons and vertical walls dropping more than a hundred metres, as well as a wide expanse of deep sea. The park's ecosystems contain more than 350 coral species and close to 500 fish species.

More than twenty-five years without fishing have allowed the biomass of reef organisms to rise to levels reached on no other Philippine reef and comparable to the finest in South-East Asia and the world. Tubbataha also has some of the highest densities of whitetip and grey reef sharks, sea cucumbers and trochus documented in the scientific literature. The northern islet is a nesting ground for seven seabird species and for hawksbill and green turtles, and holds an endemic subspecies of black noddy; the Christmas Island frigatebird, critically endangered, is a regular visitor. The park has been a Ramsar site since 1999.