Balicasag

This low, flat island is situated four kilometers southwest of Duljo Point off Panglao Reef. Surrounded by a sandy shell coraline beach, the island is fringed by a narrow reef shelf 9 to 49.5 meters wide. The tops of the submarine cliffs are covered with hard coral while lower levels are covered with sponges and gorgonians. A thriving fish community is found around the cliff face area. Jacks, barracudas and mackerels also abound.

When we got to Balicasag we disembarked and quickly huddled under some shade. It was HOT! We were quickly surrounded by locals peddling souvineers in their baskets. They just sat down next to us as we got ready. I took a picture of a communications tower used by the HETE satellite to communicate gamma ray bursts detections to the ground. The satellite is run by MIT and is a key tool in my job as an astronomer. One of our big projects is to look for the optical afterglows of gamma ray bursts. They are faint stars that are only visible sometimes and even then they last only a few minutes to a few hours. So quick notification is important. When the satellite is over the horizon of Bohol, it's detectors use that station to communicate with Earth.