Malapascua diving?

Has anyone been to Malapascua and dived with the thresher sharks? I am interested in having a look but not sure what else there is to dive there. Any advice on accomodation would be appreciated as well.

I am going in June and I have found a great deal of info using the search funtion. There have several post on things like accomodations, transportation, and the dive operators.
From what I gather it will be a great trip.

hi statesman! welcome to ppd!

here's jason's trip report. he stayed at cocobana beach resort

and here's bill's trip report. he tried Malapascua Island's Thresher Shark Divers

here's a couple more:

gravity's malapascua trip report

mike p's malapascua trip report

that should give you some idea on what other stuff to see there besides the threshers.

hope that helps

its not all what its hyped up to be there .... but I wont repeat myself.

and here's why kosmo thinks it's overrated

:rofl2:

I also agree with Kosmonooit. I went to Malapasqua for a 2 day dives, didn't see a single thresher shark except for the one on my T-Shirt which I got from my dive ops. Also dove near by a rock in the middle of the ocean which is 40 minutes away from the island (sorry forgot the name), and was very dissapointed with the sea life. BTW, this was 4 years ago and fishermen were still using dynamite fishing technique for the market, so the site of dead fishes floating in the water was a bit of a turn off... As far as the philippines is concerned, I would venture more down south in Palawan, but a bit pricey (and potentially dangerous with the islamic movement)
Hope this help.

I heard (through the SCUBAVINE) that Gutsy is the best bet. He dives with EXOTIC (I think). I do know that you gotta get up really early to see them.....It is hit or miss though. Good luck.

It is recognised that Monad Shoal is the best place in the world to see thresher shark which gather for cleaning there. These shark are pelagic - not territorial and have likely come here for thousands of years for cleaning.

Thresher are deep water shark and they are very 'skittish' is disturbed. They are light-sensitive (large eyes) and upset by movement and flash photography.

The more popular dive shops do take ever increasing numbers of people diving and some in the group do not follow the instructions set by the dive operator. We have seen this many times.

If you want to see threshers, then dive with an operator who has strict policies and exhibits good control over their divers. However, the rule of averages states that the more divers, then the more chance you have a 'rogue' diver who can spoil the dive for you. We have witnessed dive operators who allow their divers to travel off the drop off and over the wall where the threshers ascend to be cleaned. Rarely do these divers see threshers.

Tip; select a dive operator which limits the number of divers and has a guide who understands the behaviour of the Thresher shark. Dive Link are one of the best here for this. We have made 14 days diving with them and saw threshers on 90% of our dives. On other days, we saw devil rays, manta and shark.

All our diving was done away from areas where groups of divers from other companies were milling around.

Onto the 'rock' - this is Gato Island. Gato Island is one of the best sites in SE Asia for macro life and has a healthy shark population. Diving the tunnel in the afternoon in small numbers allows you to see white tip shark in a blue water cavern; diving in higher numbers will virtually eliminate your chance of seeing this.

Re negative comments, I do not know the number of dives/experience that people have before going to Malapascua, but choosing to dive with an operator that offers good comfort, convenience and PR can and does attract less experienced divers. This is not an issue if the operator is well organised.

Just understand that threshers are reclusive and very sensitive creatures that come close when divers understand how to behave and respect the rules imposed by the dive operator.

Just one renegade diver can ruin the entire dive of all divers kneeling on the shoal for 30 minutes to get one sighting of the world's most beautiful shark.

Finally, nothing is guaranteed in life - Monad is the best place for Thresher but nobody can control the shark. They are wild animals. 2 days diving is not enought there IMO. 3-5 days is about right for Monad. If you are a serious photographer, then 10 days is better.

@ WWD.... very good advice. My own experience diving at Malapascua agrees with that. 2 days is not going to be enough.

I also saw the same thing happen when large numbers went out. TSD took out a group of 15+ divers for the Thresher Shark dive the last day I was in Malapascua. My instructor went along as one of the guides. He told me later that along with all the other dive operators and their groups it was so crowded that they couldn't even move around. Needless to say they didn't see any Threshers. I was lucky to see Threshers on multiple occasions while I was there and a nice Manta also. I went right at the beginning of the "season". I dived in small groups most of the time I was there. If were to go back, I don't think I would want to dive during the times when a lot of people are there.

@ iris.... thanks for posting a link to my report