Moalboal Reef Rules Every Visitor Should Know

A freediver beside a swirling ball of sardines. Photo: Ocean Calling Retreats.

What does a town do when a clip like that goes viral? In Moalboal, the answer was to point at the law. So what are the Moalboal reef conservation rules? Municipal Ordinance No. 165-2021, from September 2021, regulates snorkelling and island hopping, sets up an environmental user's fee, and prohibits touching any marine life. In 2024 the mayor warned that violators would be fined 2,500 pesos.

Moalboal beyond the sardines

Moalboal, on Cebu's west coast in the Philippines, is famous for something most visitors have seen in a video before they book a flight: a huge school of sardines close enough to shore that you can snorkel above it without a tank. Turtles feed in the shallows nearby, and Pescador Island, a short boat ride away, is one of the best-known reef sites in the area.

The rules about how visitors behave around all this are far less visible than the sardines. But they exist, they are written down, and local officials have made clear they mean to enforce them. Here is what we could verify about them, and what we could not.

What happened in March 2024

On 9 March 2024, a TikTok video showed a tourist touching and pushing a sea turtle at Panagsama Beach. SunStar Cebu reported that by the evening of 15 March it had about 3.4 million views (another SunStar report gives about three million). The municipal government said it was trying to identify the woman, and Mayor Inocentes Cabaron publicly reminded visitors of the town's rules on contact with marine life.

The video was not where the rules came from. It was a clear, dated example of how quickly a reef's protection can be tested, and how directly local officials answered. The mayor also said that tourists are supposed to receive a proper briefing on conduct before any water activity. That puts real responsibility on guides and operators, not only on visitors.

The ordinance behind the rules

According to SunStar Cebu, the legal basis is a municipal ordinance passed on 27 September 2021, under former mayor Paz Rozgoni. Its title describes it as institutionalising and regulating snorkelling and island hopping within Pescador Island, marine protected areas and other coastal areas in the municipal waters, and establishing an environmental user's fee system. Section 20 of the ordinance prohibits touching any marine life, and the mayor said violators would be fined 2,500 pesos.

Later ordinances, published on the town's own website, confirm its number: Municipal Ordinance No. 165-2021. We could not read the 2021 text itself, so we cannot confirm the full list of prohibited acts that travel guides describe. What we could read is the Snorkeling Guide Ordinance of 2024, Ordinance No. 001-2024, approved on 18 March 2024 and amended by Ordinance No. 008-2024, approved on 23 October 2024.

As amended, it lists violations for guides and snorkellers: stepping on coral, stirring the sediment, touching or chasing marine life, wearing gloves, feeding fish, turtles or any marine life, littering, spearfishing, collecting dead or alive marine life, not using the mooring buoys or life ring, and not wearing a life jacket when snorkelling. Its penalties are 1,500 pesos for a first offence, 2,000 for a second and 2,500 for a third. Check the current rule with the Moalboal municipal tourism office or your accredited operator before you travel.

What is the environmental user's fee for?

The fee is not a side detail. The ordinance's own title links snorkelling and island hopping to an environmental user's fee system. In other words, the small payment before you get in the water is tied to the care of the reefs most visitors came to see. The 2024 ordinance gives the amount: under Section 14 of Ordinance No. 165-2021, each snorkeller pays 100 pesos before getting in the water, or 75 pesos if they already paid the 25-peso beach-goer fee. Only deputised staff of the Municipal Treasurer's Office may collect it, at official booths, and a guide is never allowed to collect it from you. Pay it, keep the receipt, and if a price seems strange, ask the tourism office rather than a stranger on the beach.

Why trained guides matter here

Moalboal has a long history of training the people who take visitors into the water. In 2013, the coral reef programme Green Fins reported that a local ordinance required dive guides to attend a seminar before they could be licensed to guide in Moalboal's municipal waters, and described the first seminar, held in December 2013. That report is old, but the town has since written its guide rules into a new ordinance. The idea behind it is still sound: a trained guide is the person who tells a first-time snorkeller "do not touch, do not stand on the reef" before they get in.

Under the 2024 Snorkeling Guide Ordinance, every snorkelling guide must be registered with the Municipal Tourism Office and wear a numbered uniform in the water. Since the October 2024 amendment, one guide may take at most two guests at a time, and only guides trained by the Department of Tourism may give the briefing before you snorkel. The guide fee is set at 300 pesos per guest, paid to the guide, not to the town.

What this looks like underwater

The sardine school moves as one reactive mass, changing shape in an instant when a predator, a diver's fin kick or a change of light comes near. Feeling part of it does not need touching it, chasing it or swimming into the middle to split it for a photo. Those are exactly the things the spirit of the rules is meant to prevent. We write more about this in Moalboal's sardines and why slowing down helps.

The same logic applies to the turtles feeding in the shallows. Watching one from a few metres away is a completely different experience, for you and for the turtle, from what happened in the March 2024 video. Footwear matters too. Travel guides also report a ban on street footwear. We could not confirm it in the texts we read, but the reason is easy to see: standing on a reef, even briefly and by accident, is one of the most common ways visitors damage coral, and stepping on coral is a listed violation. A good flat body position does more for the reef than almost anything else a beginner can control, and a well-fitting mask and snorkel that does not leak means fewer reasons to stand up in the shallows.

What the town is really saying

Reading the local reporting, the message from Moalboal is not "stay away". It is closer to "follow the rules everyone agreed to in 2021, pay the fee, and go with a guide who briefs you properly". The sardines and the reef are the town's main tourism treasure, and the rules exist to protect the thing people travel to see.

That is a different framing from "ethical tourism" as an abstract virtue. It is a town protecting its own living by protecting the reef that living depends on. That may be a stronger reason for rules to last than good intentions alone.

Practical guidance for your own visit

Before booking a snorkelling trip, ask whether your guide is accredited and whether the operator gives a briefing. Expect to pay the environmental user's fee, and keep the receipt. Wear proper water shoes or none, never street shoes, near the reef. Treat "do not touch the marine life" as a literal instruction, because it is written into an ordinance with a fine attached. A long-sleeve rash guard helps with long sessions over the sardines without putting on sunscreen every hour. Wildlife encounters are unpredictable. Snorkelling with sardines and turtles should always follow local regulations and experienced professional guidance.

Moalboal's rules are one example of a wider pattern. The details differ by place, but a protected area is only as good as the patrol, the guide and the visitor who follows the rule. Our comparison of how three Gili Islands protect their reefs looks at the same pattern from another angle. If this made you curious about Moalboal, you can explore our Moalboal trip through Ocean Match, where we match you with a vetted local team and you book with them directly.

Questions people ask

Is it illegal to touch turtles in Moalboal?

Yes. Section 20 of the 2021 municipal ordinance on snorkelling and island hopping prohibits touching any marine life, and the mayor said in 2024 that violators would be fined 2,500 pesos.

When was the Moalboal ordinance passed?

According to SunStar Cebu, on 27 September 2021, under former mayor Paz Rozgoni. It regulates snorkelling and island hopping around Pescador Island, marine protected areas and other coastal areas.

Do I have to pay a fee to snorkel?

Yes. The ordinances set an environmental user's fee of 100 pesos per snorkeller, or 75 pesos if you already paid the 25-peso beach-goer fee. Pay only at an official booth or office and keep your receipt.

Do I need a guide?

Guides must be registered with the Municipal Tourism Office, and one guide may take at most two guests. We could not confirm in the texts we read whether snorkelling without any guide is prohibited. Going with a trained, accredited guide is the safest and most respectful choice either way.

What happened with the viral turtle video?

In March 2024 a TikTok video showed a tourist touching and pushing a turtle at Panagsama Beach. It was viewed millions of times, and the town publicly reminded visitors of its existing rules.

Wildlife encounters are never guaranteed and never forced. Ocean Calling works only with vetted, ethical local operators, and every animal is free to approach, or not, entirely on its own terms.

Sources & further reading

Further reading on Ocean Calling: More from the journal · Wildlife & the law · See the retreats · Ocean Atlas