Thresher Sharks at Malapascua

Roughly 15 years ago local fishermen reported that they often saw thresher sharks literally flying out of the water at a nearby shoal. Their word got around and soon the first divers came to dive with the beautiful and shy sharks. Diving with thresher sharks in not possible anywhere else in the world.

Thresher sharks are very rarely seen by divers, as these predators live much deeper than recreational divers ever go. However, at Monad Shoal by Malapascua you can witness threshers coming up to shallow water. This is because, like most other fish, threshers need to get their bodies cleaned of parasites, and at Monad shoal there’s large cleaning stations at a depth that make it very suitable for recreational divers - especially those diving with nitrox.

If it hadn’t been for Steve Irwin (The famous late Australian filmmaker) and some German writers, Malapascua would most likely have remained largely unknown. After stories were published in leading German scuba magazines however, divers started coming to Malapascua looking forward to encounters with the amazing shy creatures that thresher sharks are.

Malapascua is today becoming a reasonably well known holiday destination in the Philippines, but the majority of tourists who go there are divers. This may very well change in the future, as the island really is breathtakingly beautiful! It’s got the clearest blue water, coconut palm-trees and blindingly white beaches and it’s speculated that the influx of tourists will change so that the ratio of divers will drop, exactly as it did on Boracay or oh Koh Tao in Thailand.

There’s currently seven dive shops on Malapascua, with another one just opening up catering to the tech-crowd. You’ll find a dozen or so bars and restaurants, with about the same number of places to stay. If you're interested in informing yourself about the diving in more detail, or to compare your choices of accommodation and read reviews, you could check out www.gotomalapascua.com - a non-commercial website offering independent travel tips about the island as well as the latest local news.