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Vol.3 No.2
Features
Malapascua Island
Threshers Before Breakfast, Sea Horses 'Fore Lunch
Photos & Text by: Tony Karacsonyi The long whip-like tail, large eye, silver sheen on it's side and the ease with which it glides through the water - little will prepare you for your first thresher shark sighting.
Inspired by Scott Tuason's reports on threshers, I travelled to Cebu in the Visayas Islands, of the Philippines, where I dived with Dutch, German, and Spanish divers, all eager to catch a glimpse of these elusive sharks, which belong to the mackerel shark family.
Malapascua is one of the few places on the globe where divers can reliably see thresher sharks, at a place called Monad Shoal - the top of a seamount where these sharks arrive at dawn, to be cleaned by a collection of wrasse. Each morning at 6am, outrigger diving boats (called bancas), journey out to Monad Shoal, to put divers in the water soon after first light. We settle on the seamount at a depth of about 23m (75ft), and wait for the sharks to arrive, at one of three cleaning stations. Mantas, mobula rays and eagle rays visit too.
Threshers are usually very shy, and it is often in the last few minutes of the dive that the threshers can be seen. The trick is to breathe very slowly when the sharks arrive, as the sound of bubbles can spook the sharks. The threshers are full of surprises, so be sure to look behind you, and upwards also. The sharks sometimes break their own rules of shyness, passing right over the heads of divers.
Early in my trip, a pair of threshers arrived at a cleaning station and started circling in front of us, then passed behind and kept circling for some time, about 6m (20ft) away. My Nikon whirred and I'd shot off 30 shots in no time.
On another dawn dive in low 7m (23ft)- visibility, we got buzzed by a 3m (10ft)-thresher, about 3m (10ft)-away. It was a magnificent animal with a fat belly, which Toto and I decided was either pregnant, or had eaten an awful lot of fish the night before.
"The last minute of the shark dive is very important. This is when we often see the threshers" says divemaster Toto. "The first boat and the last boat, are often the ones who see the sharks, because too many divers can scare them away". The peak diving/holiday season at Malapascua, in summer, is not the best time to see the sharks. The winter months, despite some rain and cloud is a better time for shark diving. Dive Resorts at Malapascua have hosted film crews and underwater photographers from all over the world, including Doug Perrine and Scotty Tuason.
Adrenaline Rush | Waypoints | Malapascua
Nearest International Airports
Manila, Mactan (Cebu)
Dry Seasons
Novemeber to June
Electricity
Generator, 240V
Local Currency
Philippine Pesos
Country Dialing Code
+63 | The threshers are an amazing adrenalin rush, and are Malapascua's biggest draw but what impressed me just as much, was the richness and biodiversity of Malapascua's soft corals.
Dik de Boer, a Dutch National, and his Filipina wife Cora, started the first dive resort on Malapascua Island, back in 1997. They first checked out this little island paradise, north of Cebu, in 1996, after reading about the island in a 'Lonely Planet' travel guide.
Dik still remembers seeing the first thresher sharks with his friend named Mikael Person, in 1997. Over the months and years, with the help of local fishermen they also found two Japanese WW2 shipwrecks to add to a Manila-Cebu ferry that was already known as a beautiful wreck dive. With such a selection of wreck dives, thresher sharks and reef dives, Dik and Cora, set up the Exotic Dive Resort, and over the years, expanded the operation to include three large dive boats and a nitrox facility.
On a gentle tide at North Point you can drift over dense soft coral gardens filled with anemones, clownfish, commensal shrimps, harlequin shrimps, white cowries (often seen on the pale soft corals), butterflyfish, lionfish, pipefish and juvenile harlequin sweetlips.
Exploring a ledge at 18m (59ft), the overhang was adorned in soft corals, thorny oysters, sponges and a large, greyish, frogfish - a well known resident here. There's also a black, giant frogfish, which divers have seen walking on it's pectoral fins.
Gato Island is like something from a Harry Potter movie. It's a short sharp rocky island rising from what seems like the middle of nowhere in the South China Sea. It is 50-minutes boat ride from Malapascua. Nesting seabirds fly around the island and a colony of flying foxes are found in trees high on it's cliffy shore. Kingfishers flit in and out of sea caves. Gato Island is constantly bathed in current, giving life to it's soft coral canyons and myriad of rare and unusual nudibranchs. Nowhere have I see so many nudibranchs of all shapes and forms.
Nudibranch egg clusters were prolific, and there are pygmy sea horses at 25m (82ft). Whitetip reef sharks shelter in the caves, and one cave leads right through the centre of the island. As you leave the light at one end, it becomes dark, and as you swim onward, the blue light of the other side comes into view. The cave has several passageways, and secret hidey-holes, adorned in thousands of lovely daisy corals, thorny oysters and sponges.
There is a ranger's house on the sheltered side of Gato Island, with a sign saying - 'Sea Snake and Marine Life Sanctuary'. There are many sea snakes, especially at the three to five metre (ten to 16 foot)-depth, where the juvenile sea snakes hang out. Some of my best sightings included a large banded sea snake at 20m (66ft), and a big eel. Gato Island is full of surprises and every dive had something new to offer, such as porcelain crabs and squadrons of squid.
Japanese Wreck | 
| | The threshers are an amazing adrenalin rush, and are Malapascua's biggest draw but what impressed me just as much, was the richness and biodiversity of Malapascua's soft corals. | The Tapilon, is believed to be a Japanese shipwreck and is located at 29m (95ft) off Tapilon Island, hence it's name. Although broken into three or four segments, the Tapilon is a rich and rewarding dive with lots of black coral trees, immense shoals of small barracuda (great wide angle scenery) and about 10 very lonely remoras. For those looking for the elusive ghost pipefish, the Tapilon is a prime site.
An absolute highlight was diving with the colourful mandarinfish at the Lighthouse dive site. The trick is to arrive before dark and find a colony of mandarin fish, then wait and see what happens. As it starts to get dark you can see the larger males chasing the females. The pair rises up off the coral for a few seconds before discharging their sperm and eggs into sea. It's a magical scene matched only the amazing phosphorescence in the ocean at night.
House Reef is an artificial reef created by Dik and the locals. An exciting array of marine animals have made home on all sorts of the bits and pieces, which they have placed on the sandy seafloor at 12m (39ft). It's fascinating to see how different critters are using different types of artificial reef structures. Sea urchins have colonised the roof and bonnets of the two jeepneys, squid are laying eggs in the suspended bunches of tree branches, large healthy sweetlips are hanging beneath the low bamboo structures, and an orange frogfish lurks on the spherical wire structure.
Three fat and healthy lionfish have made home in one of the jeepneys - they hang about as if they own it. The other jeepney has a big resident cuttlefish. On the sandy seafloor there are razorfish, gobies, sole, and on one of the large tube-like structures, I saw a stunning little juvenile lionfish.
Malapascua is one of the richest places I have ever dived, for tropical marine life, the local Filipino people are warm and welcoming, and you can freely walk all over the island, and visit the local villages. At sites like Gato Island and North Point - the soft coral gardens and critters need to be seen to be believed, and you'll see nudibranchs at Gato Island, that you may never see again. Oh, and there's the thresher sharks of Monad Shoal. The threshers alone make the trip worthwhile!
How to get there
Fly to Cebu. If you arrive late in the day, you will need to overnight in Cebu. In Cebu, you will be picked up by your dive centre, and transferred to Malapascua by minibus and boat.
What to take
Lots of film or digital memory cards, and batteries. Rechargeable batteries can be charged overnight. It is a good idea to take antimalarial prophylactics, although this area is said to be free of malaria. Bottled water and soft-drinks are readily available.
| Thresher Research | The sea mound of Monad Shoal near Malapascua in the Philippines is the only place in the world where thresher sharks can be easily seen on a daily basis. The sharks come to Monad Shoal every morning to be cleaned by wrasse. To learn more about these reclusive creatures, a shark research study is currently being conducted on Malapascua Island.
The study is investigating the relationship between the sharks and the wrasse in an effort to better understand how to preserve these magnificent creatures. Sadly, the number of sightings have been declining over the last few years. Whether this is through diver interaction, fishing, species migration or some other reason is not yet known. In its first month, the study has already provided valuable information on site management to minimize diver impact. It is anticipated that the next two months will provide much more.
The research team is looking for volunteers to help preserve this treasure of Southeast Asian diving. They do not have the manpower to investigate the site as they would like without help. Volunteers will join researchers from the University of Wales' School of Ocean Sciences in collecting data on these amazing creatures. The volunteers will join seminars, learn about research methods, and should get to see the sharks many times. An added bonus are the mantas that frequent the site at this time of year.
This is a unique opportunity for anyone interested in the underwater world and in particular the preservation of sharks. The start date is still to be determined (approx. Oct 2nd, 2005), and only a limited number of spaces are available. You'll need to have Advanced Open Water and Enriched Air Certification, with 30+ dives, but training is available prior to the expedition.
More information... | |
