giant clam sanctuary

Best way to encounter this last of giants. They showed me a 19months old which a size of a 5peso coin. Don't know how old are those 1.5 meters length when you go there you can ask it for me to know. Best time to reach the area at low tide in the morning to witness the different colors of the clams mouth. Enjoy snorkeling with friendly guides and a low cost for 10 person together in the rented motorized boat.

Feels good to see a place dedicated to preserve these incredibly huge and beautiful animals. Nice snorking for all the family, Very friendly guides. Easy to get there.

Scorching hot out in mid-sea. Swam all around but saw clams fewer and far between than advertised in the hundreds.

The Giant Clam Sanctuary on Samal Island is an ongoing conservation project of the Davao del Norte State College and is open to visitors. It's a protected breeding colony of several species of giant clams, taklobo in the local language. Giant clams have been overfished in the Philippines as delicacies and for their shells, so this is a welcome effort to restock Davao Gulf with them. You can reach the sanctuary by land and a short boat hop from the Samal Island ferry ports, or better yet, make arrangements to make it part of a snorkeling boat tour. The sanctuary sits in the sandy shallows between the Malipano islets and the shore of Samal Island, very near the famous Pearl Farm resort. Access is controlled by the DNSC, which maintains a keeper's house on pilings above the sanctuary itself, and charges a minimal fee (about PHP 100) for snorkeling with the clams, guide included. Only snorkeling is allowed here; scuba diving is not, probably because of the risk that divers may crash into the clams. You're also not allowed to touch the clams without the keepers' supervision. The keeper-guides will snorkel with you, towing you if you want, and will stop frequently to identify the different kinds of giant clams there and even pick up specimens for you to examine up close and photograph. We had a lot of fun with this, as the iridiscent mantles of the clams are really nice to photograph, and they squirted water on our unwary guests! Never talk dirty to a giant clam!It's best to come here in the morning, preferably after a clear night. We came over in the afternoon and it had rained the previous night, so the waters were rather silty and the light was going down already. If you've time, spend a while prowling the seagrass beds around the keeper's hut after checking out the clams. You might spot seahorses, puffers, crabs, and other small, often camouflaged denizens of this underwater pasture. I also recommend visiting this attraction in a big group, so you can chip in for a good boat -- the one we hired, through Samal Watersports, had its own (clean!) toilet, a sturdy and easily accessible ladder, and provided reliable new masks and snorkels. Not the cheapest, but we got what we paid for! Recommended gear: mask and snorkel if your boat doesn't provide you with them, diving booties or aqua shoes, and alcohol just in case there are irritating plankton in the water.