There are pens for pigs and chickens and there are also pens for fishes and they are no ordinary ones.
In Sinacaban, Misamis Occidental, they have an aquamarine park, called appropriately as Misamis Occidental Aquamarine Park or MOAP. The aquamarine park sits on a mangrove area where they breed freshwater prawns, hito and some say there were lobsters but I didn’t see one because I was distracted with the sights of captive monkeys, and snakes, crocodiles and a tarsier. The cages of the zoo animals can be accessed through a network of footpaths and floating bamboo bridges. The networks of bamboo walkways float in the brackish water and into the seawater about 300 meters long, I’m not really sure because I’m not good at distances. And besides who would want to bother with measuring a floating bamboo bridge when your are distracted with the view of the breathtaking view of the mangrove, the skirting in and out of the bamboo bridges that takes you in different corners like the corner where the floating cottages were. There were colorful flags waving with the sea breeze that gives an atmosphere of a festivity and the distant sight of a large bamboo structure at the end of the bamboo walkway where the floating restaurant is.
The restaurant serves the delicious grilled tuna belly, which is my favorite. The rates are reasonable. While waiting for the order we wandered around the nearby bridge to take pictures and smell and taste more of the seawater. Going back inside the restaurant we picked souvenir items, mostly t-shirts that scream “I’ve been to Dolphin Island!” It is in the restaurant where we arranged a ride to our ultimate destination.
The motorized banca runs for a good 15 minutes up to the famed island of the rescued dolphins. The island is actually a sand bar. Shallow enough to construct a network of bamboo structures, fish pens, a concretized viewing deck and a restaurant, and deep enough for the amusement of the swimmers and divers and snorkelers. Scuba diving gears and snorkels and fins and even kayaks can be rented at the area. There are a number of fish pens. And this is what I am really excited to talk about.
The first pen houses the great and lonesome giant sea turtle that eludes swimmers and excited onlookers. The elusive turtle swims like no other sea creature in a speed of an airplane. Nobody touches the turtle, nobody sees the turtle in full view except for the caretaker. I surmised that the caretaker and the turtle have established a special human-turtle bond which makes me jealous and very disappointed. The turtle even takes the caretaker for a superman ride on its back. The caretaker clings steadily on its carapace and is taken from the surface to the deep and back and from end to end. Then the caretaker emerges out alive, panting for air and very happy and proud gives us the thumbs up sign, while we clap and wowed in admiration, suppressing our jealousy. This is the same pen where I snorkeled. While the elusive giant turtle was hiding, I snorkeled with fishes; I identified as yellow fins, not its real name and swordfish not also its real name. The yellow fins are larger than life and swim vertically in a punctuated fashion which makes my skin stand on end. The swordfish swim like normal fishes in a relatively large group. So that when you swim in their direction you have to give way unless you want to make a history out of colliding with obstinate swordfishes that can puncture your face with their sharp and pointy bills. This pen, I decided is not for the faint of heart like mine. I climbed off the water and transferred to pen number two.
Pen number two is a walk in the park. There are no swordfishes, no vertical-swimming yellow fins and definitely no elusive giant turtle. Here in this pen are giant clams and some fishes of the smaller kind that you can feed. They are the friendly ones and they have to because they want the food you are clutching in your hands. There is no such thing as collision in this pen because the fishes are busy grinding their food and the mollusk are fixed on the ground.
The other pen is where the famed dolphins are. Unlike the giant turtle that was elusive and shy, the turtles are flirty showgirls. They like it when they are being watched and applauded. They play their dolphin game and talk their dolphin talk like they are the happiest being on earth! They skid on the deep, come up on the surface and squirt water in different directions as they like. They shoot themselves up into the open air and hit the water gracefully snout first. Sometimes they just hop up and smack themselves into the water, it does not hurt; they are dolphins! Then the best thing is seeing them somersault 360 degrees. Fantastic!
In addition to the pens, are shallow areas that are situated off the perimeter for kids and none-swimmers or for swimmers who want to take a little time off to relax under the cool waters. The dolphin island has fine brown sands that are smooth to the touch. From the sandbar one can see the distant mainland obscured by the sea mist and the mangroves.
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