From a distance, you can see Sumilon Island as a thin line rising out of the Tañon Strait. Cebu can be seen on the left side of the frame.

The students didn't waste any time in getting suited up and into the water with their scuba gear.

Sometimes the boatmen would help them in to the water by almost tossing student and scuba gear over the transom.

Right away I spotted this lion fish hovering at the edge of the coral wall.

This lion fish looked pretty dramatic when backlit by the sunlight above.

As long as you don't get too close everything's ok.

Further along in the dive I spotted this clown fish peeking out of its anemone home.

Not everyone in the group was scuba certified so about half of the students snorkeled the reefs to make observations for their marine biology field journals.

I'm not exactly sure what the boatman was doing here, but I think he was taunting some tomato clown fish.

Yup, looks like a taunting.

Unlike their "Finding Nemo" relatives, the tomato clown fish will bite and seem to be a lot more aggressive.

I stayed back and let the camera zoom get in close.

The underwater classroom in progress. Sure beats sitting in an auditorium.

Sumilon seems to have a large population of clown fish, but not very many larger species.

For lunch, we got off the boat and ate on this nice beach that faces Cebu.

Sumilon's sandbar looks pretty idyllic from the hillside above.

A few boats from nearby dive shops were anchored near the sand bar.

Here's a few more Sumilon clown fish.

The clown fish camouflage makes sense for living in an anemone.

Ian Johnston (pictured here) is the lucky teacher to be in charge of this international reef exploration expedition.

If it weren't for the flash of the camera highlighting the bright orange color of the clown fish, this fellow would be pretty tough to spot.

Sumilon used to be a marine resource management success story until it was opened to unregulated fishing again and the fish populations collapsed.

The small fish populations and corals seem pretty healthy though, so it should only be a matter of time before the reef is balanced and the larger fish return again.