Conservation · Adopt-A-Mooring-Line

“The only way to truly protect something is to first fall in love with it.”

Older than our grandparents

Some of the corals at Rock Island and Stimpy's were alive before our grandparents were born. A hard coral grows about a centimeter a year, so a boulder the size of a person has been sitting there for centuries.

We dive these reefs almost every day, and after a while you start to recognize the damage. A fresh white scar across a brain coral. A chunk knocked off a boulder, and a chain dragging back and forth over the same patch every time the tide turns. Once you've seen it, you can't stop seeing it.

Chie wrote her first letter to the local government about it in 2018. Years later, diving the same reefs from her own dive center, she stopped waiting for an answer and started building one.

Nobody here is the villain. The boatmen are working, the surfers are surfing, and most people who drop an anchor have never seen what's underneath. So when Adopt-A-Mooring-Line started in Catangnan in 2025, everyone was at the table: divers, surfers, boatmen, resorts and barangay officials.

The OceanTribe team kneeling on the sand next to a freshly installed mooring line

A mooring rope running down to a helix anchor in the sand

How a mooring line works

A helix anchor
A long steel screw drilled deep into a sandy patch, well clear of living coral. It locks in and doesn't move.
A line to the surface
Marine-grade rope, about 1.6 times the depth, with garden hose wrapped around the points where it rubs.
A big red buoy
Boats clip on instead of dropping metal. One line holds two to three surf boats, and the reef below stays untouched.

So far

9mooring lines installed around Catangnan, including Rock Island and Stimpy's. The goal is ten.

₱699,624raised from community sponsors, raffles and auctions, including our Under The Sea night

4awareness programs, including a boatman workshop with a free first aid course

Aug 2025first line in the water at Rock Island, above a cuttlefish breeding ground

After the first lines went in, we stopped and watched. It took time and a workshop with the boatmen, but the boats started clipping on, and the red buoys became part of the lineup. What comes next is slower work. We'll finish the last lines in Catangnan, survey the reef with marine researchers so we know which corals are coming back, and then carry the idea to the rest of Siargao, with protected areas as the long goal.

Help us finish the last lines

Adopt a line

When you adopt a line, your name goes on the buoy and floats above the reef you helped protect, for years.

Full line

₱50,000

Your name on both sides of the buoy.

Half line

₱25,000

Your name on one side of the buoy.

Your amount

Any size

Funds lines, workshops and outreach. Materials welcome too.

Your sweat

Your time

Help on install days, at workshops, or with your boat and crew.

You get photos, video and the GPS position of your line. If you're on the island, come dive with us on the day it goes in.

Adopt a line on WhatsApp Donate from abroad

We send local payment details (GCash, UnionBank, Wise) on WhatsApp. Please add the note “Save Corals + your name” so we can thank you. We can't issue official donation receipts.