Diving with Thresher Sharks at Malapascua Island
Summary
Malapascua Island is the only place in the world where you can regularly see Thresher Sharks – a 6m long shark that has a very distinctive long sloping tail used to stun fish during hunting and, as they usually live at 350m / 1150ft, are very rare to see. This makes it a real must for divers, but Malapascua is also an idyllic small tropical island to relax on – certainly worth checking out as part of a broader Cebu trip if a non-diver
highlights
Diving deep to see up close one of the Thresher Sharks - the #1 attraction of Malapascua Island
Chilling in an idyllic tropical paradise
Some great diving in the nearby reefs
Travel Tips
- The Thresher Sharks come up for cleaning in the early morning, so be prepared to be heading out on the boat at 5am to Monad Shoal. The dive is all about the sharks – you’ll stay for around 20mins at the max depth on the reef of 28m / 90ft and watch as the Threshers come up from the depths. Visibility is good at 15m or so. Chance of seeing a Thresher are around 75% and, as with so many places in this part of the world, there are also some great dives nearby. I went with DevOcean divers who were super and did the following dives:
- Gato Island x2
- Monad Shoal x2
- Lapus x1
- I stayed at the Tepanee Beach Resort on the headland at the far west end of the main beach, which I’d really recommend as has its own private beach to enjoy after morning dives
- Getting to Malapascua can be a bit of a pain. Most realistically you’ll be flying to Cebu and taking the bus up to Maya, and then the boat over to Malapascua. For the bus, try and get a mini van which will take 3.5 hours rather than the bus which takes 4.5 hours and they leave more regularly. For the boat – its fairly straightforward and the last one is at 530pm
- Consider a trip over to Bohol – if you’re visiting Malapascua, you’re more likely flying into Cebu. From there it is a short ferry ride over to the island of Bohol where you have the option of Quad-biking through the Bohol Chocolate hills (including seeing some of the super small Tarsiers, the world’s smallest primate) and Diving off Balicasag Island which is really pleasant when you stay on Pangalao Island. See these two links for more tips on these experiences
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Great Diving Experiences
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone