Crystal De Lara works to connect people with the ocean, one dive at a time in Puerto Galera. The city sits at the southern entrance to the Verde Island Passage, one of the most biodiverse marine corridors on the planet. Its coral reefs support an extraordinary density of species, and its waters draw divers from across the world. It is also where Blue Alliance operates Coral Reef Safari, an ecotourism business whose revenues help fund the effective management of the Marine Protected Area (MPA) Network.
Some people find the ocean. For Crystal, the ocean found her.
Growing up far from the shoreline, her first encounters with the underwater world came not through first-hand experience, but through a screen. She spent hours as a child watching underwater footage, transfixed by the animals, the ecosystems, and the stories unfolding beneath the surface. Long before she ever entered the water, the ocean had already claimed her attention.
“The more time I spent watching those videos, the more interested I became in the animals, the ecosystems, and the stories behind what I was seeing.”
Today, Crystal works as a Coral Reef Safari Guide for Coral Reef Safari, Blue Alliance’s ecotourism business in Puerto Galera. Her role sits at the intersection of conservation, education, and human connection. The revenue generated through that work flows directly back into Blue Alliance’s MPA management, making every dive part of something larger.
An Unlikely Beginning
Crystal’s path to the ocean was anything but straightforward. She arrived in Puerto Galera in 2014 as a non-swimmer. A chance friendship with a local dive shop owner changed everything. Over time, the friendship grew into something closer, something Crystal describes as becoming part of a family. The ocean, which had once existed only on a screen, began to feel closer and closer.
She stayed, learned, and eventually began working with the dive shop, starting at the front of the operation handling enquiries. Step by step, over nearly seven years, she worked her way toward her Divemaster qualification. When she eventually moved on, a friend’s social media post caught her attention: an open position at Coral Reef Safari. She read the description carefully and applied.
“All the descriptions matched my experience and skills, so I sent an email and applied and eventually got the position!”
It was, in retrospect, the role she had been working toward without knowing it.
Reading the Reef
No two days look the same for Crystal, and that, she is quick to say, is precisely the point.
Most mornings begin early, before guests arrive. There are conditions to assess, equipment to check, dive plans to review. But there is also something less procedural happening in those quiet pre-departure moments: a kind of attentiveness, a reading of what the day might hold.
“Before guests arrive, I’m rechecking conditions, reviewing plans, making sure everything is ready, and often thinking about what marine life we might encounter that day.”
Once guests arrive, her focus shifts entirely to the people beside her. She delivers briefings, answers questions, and guides guests through the sensory experience of an underwater environment many have never encountered before. Safety is always the foundation.
“Whether it’s explaining how coral reefs function, identifying marine species, or sharing conservation stories, I try to make the ocean feel more accessible and relatable.”
Coral Reef Safari takes guests to sites that see very little human traffic, away from well-trodden dive routes. For Crystal, this is one of the privileges of her role: access to reefs that remain largely undisturbed, and the chance to share them with people who would never otherwise see them.
An Encounter That Stopped Time
Among the countless experiences Crystal has accumulated in Puerto Galera’s waters, one stands out. During a trip through the Verde Island Passage, her boat came upon a pod of orcas, around five in total, including a mother and a calf. Orcas are not known to frequent that part of the Philippines. No sightings had been reported in the area before. What she was witnessing was, by any measure, extraordinary.
“Excited and overjoyed are not even enough to describe how I felt during those sightings.”
She documented the encounter on video and shared it online. Local networks picked up the story. What had begun as an unexpected sighting became something wider: a moment of public awareness, and a reminder that these waters still hold surprises for those paying close enough attention.
Quiet Impact
The moments Crystal is most proud of are rarely dramatic. A guest who independently identifies a fish species they learned about earlier that day. A conversation after a dive that shifts the way someone speaks about coral reefs. A person who walks back onto the boat looking at the sea differently than when they left it.
“You don’t always see the impact immediately, but knowing that you’ve helped someone build a connection with the ocean is incredibly rewarding. If a person leaves with more appreciation and respect for marine ecosystems than they had before, I consider that a success.”
This is the measure Crystal uses. Not hours logged or species listed, but whether the people she guides leave caring more than when they arrived. It is also, at its core, what Blue Alliance’s ecotourism model is built on: the understanding that people who feel a genuine connection to the ocean are more likely to support its protection.
Crystal knows there are still places to explore, species to learn about, and people to reach. But she also knows that every dive is an opportunity.
“What excites me most is the possibility of reaching more people and helping them see the ocean the way I see it. Not just as a beautiful place to visit, but as something worth protecting. Once people truly connect with the ocean, they rarely look at it the same way again.”
In her curiosity, her care for the guests she guides, and her daily presence in Puerto Galera’s waters, Crystal De Lara embodies Blue Alliance’s mission:
Regenerating oceans at scale – for people and nature.
“Regenerating the ocean at Scale – For People and Nature.”
