Malapascua Island - no one trick pony

Malapascua Island is the best place in the world to see pelagic thresher sharks.

June 7, 2023
Malapascua Island is the best place in the world to see pelagic thresher sharks.
Malapascua Island is the best place in the world to see pelagic thresher sharks.
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The Philippine island of Malapascua is famous for one thing: being the best place in the world to see thresher sharks. While diving with thresher sharks was an incredible experience, we quickly discovered that this island is no one trick pony and offers the diver a diverse range of underwater experiences.

Located off the northern end of Cebu, about three hours drive from Cebu City, Malapascua is an island you will fall in love with as soon as you see it. Only two kilometres long, the island is surrounded by blue water, studded with palm trees.

Each day four dives are scheduled, with the first one at sunrise. This requires you to get up at 4.30am, a bit of a shock to the system when on holiday, but believe us you don’t want to miss this dive as this is sunrise with the threshers!

Boarding the dive boat in the dark at 5am, coffee is the first thing that most people head for. A half-hour journey east and you arrive at Monad Shoal, an isolated sea mount. With the sun still hidden behind the hills of nearby Leyte we descended into the dark blue water.

A bearded scorpionfish.
A bearded scorpionfish.

Our guide Wilbert then led us to the edge of the reef, at 14 metres, and we settled down to wait. Even though it was dark, the visibility was around 30 metres. Peering down the sandy slope, the reef fish were just emerging to the start their day and we could see thousands of garden eels swaying in the gentle current.
Suddenly we could see something larger rising from the depths, as it got closer we could tell it was a shark, a shark with very large eyes and an incredible elongated tail – a pelagic thresher shark. The shark was almost 3.5 metres long, half of that was just its tail. It was quickly joined by two other thresher sharks that proceeded to parade in front of us for the next ten minutes. These sharks normally live in deep water, but visit Monad Shoal each morning to get cleaned by the diligent cleaner wrasse.

A pelagic thresher shark glides by the camera.
A pelagic thresher shark glides by the camera.

It was an amazing experience to watch these majestic sharks slowly cruise over the cleaning stations, with over a dozen cleaning stations found at this site in depths from 14–33 metres. It was hard to tell how many sharks we saw each day, but it was quite common to be watching three sharks at once. Each day was also different; sometimes they would come in close to the divers, while other times they stayed in the distance. A couple of times they appeared behind us in the shallows, and one even buzzed us while ascending the mooring line.

The thresher sharks of Monad Shoal were first discovered over twenty years ago, after being regularly captured by fishermen. According to the dive operators more sharks are now seen than ever before, as the site is now protected, with each diver paying a fee that employs rangers to do nightly patrols. All the dive operators on Malapascua visit Monad Shoal each morning, with about a dozen dive boats crowded on one site.

On the lookout for a meal, a Forster’s hawkfish at Malapascua.
On the lookout for a meal, a Forster’s hawkfish at Malapascua.

Fortunately Thresher Shark Divers have their own site so there is never a crowd. After the sunrise dive many people head back to bed, but the morning and afternoon dives around the island are well worth doing. Over a dozen dive sites are found around Malapascua and we enjoyed every one we did. The corals at all sites looked quite healthy, as moorings are used, and while we didn’t see many large fish, we did find a wonderful range of reef fish, invertebrates and especially critters in depths up to 25 metres.

We did a great dive on the Doña Marilyn, a 100 metre-long ferry that sank in 1988 in a typhoon with the tragic loss of 389 people. The wreck rests on its side in 33 metres and is completely covered in black corals, sea whips, soft corals and sponges, and home to masses of fish. We did a lap of the wreck, swimming around the masts and peering into rooms, but mostly admiring the corals and fish.

The mast of the Doña Marilyn, now covered in corals and fish.
The mast of the Doña Marilyn, now covered in corals and fish.

The most popular day trip is a visit to Gato Island. This small island is surrounded by wonderful coral gardens and home to a diverse range of species. There are many caves and ledges to explore here, including a 30 metre-long cave that goes right through the island. In depths from 10–25 metres we found sea snakes, cuttlefish, sea horses, squid, moray eels, crabs, shrimps, prolific reef fish and a great range of nudibranchs.

The last dive each day, if you still have the energy, is a sunset dive at Lighthouse Reef. Only 12 metres deep, you enter the water at twilight to watch the nightly mating dance of the spectacular mandarinfish. Then it is off to explore the coral gardens where you will see brittle stars, shrimps, crabs, squid, cuttlefish, octopus, shells, sleeping fish and over a dozen seahorses.

Helen explores the wreck of the Doña Marilyn.
Helen explores the wreck of the Doña Marilyn.

Typhoon NewsThe day after we left Malapascua the island was hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan, the largest storm ever recorded. While there was extensive damage on the island, no one was seriously injured, unlike in other parts of the Philippines. Within days, many dive centres and resorts reopened and report that there is little or no damage to the local reefs. The best support they can receive is for you to visit Malapascua, as this will help to rebuild the island, as many of the locals lost their homes.  

For more information contact:
Thresher Shark Divers  
www.malapascua-diving.com
Tepanee Beach Resort
www.tepanee.com

One of the traditional banca boats used by Thresher Shark Divers.
One of the traditional banca boats used by Thresher Shark Divers.

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Nigel Marsh and Helen Rose

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