Ex JAVELIN KUTSERO was a Tri Service Type 3 Adventurous Training expedition conducted over the period 12 February ‐ 8 March 16. The expedition involved scuba diving activities focussed on the WW2 Japanese wrecks of Coron in the Philippines. Diving was conducted in two groups; this report focuses on the first of these, which deployed over the period 12‐26 February.
We flew from Heathrow to first Manila, capital of the Philippines, then Busanga Island in Coron, from where we got a boat to our final destination, Discovery Island, our base for the fortnight. While the history associated with the location was fascinating, and an educational insight into the WW2 Pacific campaign, its remoteness meant that it required considerable technical planning for emergencies as local medical facilities are limited, and transport was challenging; indeed, this was part of the appeal.
We dived on a variety of wrecks, and in a variety of conditions, from shallow wrecks in 10m of water and little current, to 30m wrecks in strong current. The Tai Maru aircraft carrier was a particular favourite. It had lost its bow, where it is suspected a fire and thus explosion led to its effectively cracking in two. We used this to access the inside of the boat, and explore: there was plenty to see, from aircraft rails to machine gun mounts, the aircraft themselves however having never been recovered. Another favourite dive, the Morazan Mar, provided plenty of opportunity for individual exploration, from giant blue swim-throughs, to relatively tight squeezes through propeller shafts; both great fun, and invaluable for confidence-building. That wreck was also full of coral, nudibranchs and lionfish, whilst stonefish and crocodile fish were also spotted.
We also did a number of reef dives, and conducted a wide range of BSAC lessons to build personnel’s diving qualifications. The underwater life was very impressive; for example, in a reef called ‘Christina's coral garden’ we saw gigantic feather and table corals, also a giant clam around half a metre in diameter, colourful nudibranchs, and hundreds of exotic fish species. Whilst one group was diving, the diving supervisors on the surface went through rescue practices with the other group, in which a ‘casualty’ would be brought on board the boat, discussing how we would proceed with oxygen administration and contacting emergency services, to getting the casualty to the nearest decompression chamber or hospital. Rescue lessons also included spotting the signs of hypoxia and hyperoxia, CO2 and carbon monoxide poisoning, and how to deal with it.
We also dived in a unique location, Barracuda Lake. Situated on the coastline of a tribal island, the entire island had been given to a local tribe in the 1980’s, and Philippine law had no jurisdiction here. Consisting of around 2000 indigenous tribesmen plus 400 Philippinos who had married into the tribe, they were now very rich by charging tourists to visit the lakes on the island. After anchoring along the coastline, we swam to the beach, and then climbed with scuba gear up and over a rockface. On the other side was Barracuda Lake: totally picturesque, crystal clear blue waters against a backdrop of steep jagged rocky peaks. Despite its name, only one barracuda has been spotted in this lake; the draw of this dive was indeed not the marine life but the presence of a thermocline. Thermoclines occur where two water bodies lie on top of each other, and due to their differing densities do not mix, instead a clear defined boundary line occurs. In this lake the bottom layer was a salty hot layer around 40 degrees C, fed by hot springs further inland through a series of cave systems. This was overlain by a considerably colder (29 degrees C) layer. Under the water this boundary could be both seen and felt. Once time had been spent in the almost unpleasantly warm bottom layer, returning to the [relative – 29C!] colder layer was a shock! The rock faces under the water were fascinating, their limestone nature resulting in all sorts of strange shapes being formed. The only real marine life spotted were hundreds of shrimp, and what appeared as less evolved catfish, with large eyes and tadpole like tails. Post-dive was spent swimming and snorkelling.
The reserve members of the expedition were fully‐integrated in to the planning, from working as Sub Aqua Diving Supervisor to preparing briefings for all personnel on the history of the sites, as well as the technical diving aspects. There were considerable educational and developmental benefits to individual participants, including military awareness of the Philippines campaign, developing diving skills and qualifications. Finally, all reserve personnel progressed their leadership and instructional qualifications, so as to be able to lead and instruct on future expeditions.
We achieved our aim of delivering tangible training outcomes to progress service personnel through both the British Sub Aqua Club and Joint Services diving syllabi. Everyone on the expedition gained valuable experience and progression towards further qualifications, predominantly Dive Leader, and we would like to express our considerable gratitude to both the Ulysses Trust who assisted with the expedition, and to Maj Dax Godderidge of ARRC SpBn, without whose immense efforts the exercise would never have taken place.
Officer Cadet Rebecca Seal, Wales University Officers Training Corps
