Honda Bay is a bay on the eastern shore of the island of Palawan

Palawan

Palawan is an island province of the Philippines located in the MIMAROPA region or Region 4. Its capital is Puerto Princesa City, and it is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of jurisdiction. The islands of Palawan stretch from Mindoro in the northeast to Borneo in the...

 near Puerto Princesa City

Puerto Princesa City

The City of Puerto Princesa is a city located on the western provincial island of Palawan, one of 80 provinces which make up the Philippines...

 in the southwestern Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

.

The bay is used for both subsistence

Artisan fishing

Artisan fishing is a term used to describe small scale low-technology commercial or subsistence fishing practices. The term particularly applies to coastal or island ethnic groups using traditional techniques such as rod and tackle, arrows and harpoons, throw nets and drag nets, and traditional...

 and commercial

Commerce

While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...

 fisheries and recreation. Boats can be rented for the day and used for travel to nearby islands, many less than 45 minutes from the shore by boat. Honda Bay is ideal for snorkeling

Snorkeling

Snorkeling is the practice of swimming on or through a body of water while equipped with a diving mask, a shaped tube called a snorkel, and usually swimfins. In cooler waters, a wetsuit may also be worn...

. Starfish are commonly found near islands such as Starfish Island. Puerto Princesa is the nearest port city, and is accessible by plane.

From 1953 to 1976 the nearby Palawan Quicksilver Mine used mine tailings

Tailings

Tailings, also called mine dumps, slimes, tails, leach residue, or slickens, are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction of an ore...

 from their ore extraction processes to produce a jetty

Jetty

A jetty is any of a variety of structures used in river, dock, and maritime works that are generally carried out in pairs from river banks, or in continuation of river channels at their outlets into deep water; or out into docks, and outside their entrances; or for forming basins along the...

 at Honda Bay. The village of Sitio Honda Bay was erected on these mine tailings. Environmental studies indicate that some residents of the village and elsewhere near the mine have toxic levels of mercury

Mercury poisoning

Mercury poisoning is a disease caused by exposure to mercury or its compounds. Mercury is a heavy metal occurring in several forms, all of which can produce toxic effects in high enough doses...

in their blood.