Malapascua Trip Report

[WetPup]

As a guide, I almost always carry a pointer/muck stick. I use it for pointing out critters, fish, or whatever seems interesting. My personal view is why go to the Phillipines, if I live next door to Indonesia.

Ordinarily I'd be with you on the Indo thing, but I wanted to see the thresher sharks. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices...

All flights in and out of MNL appear to be cancelled right now. Currently stuck at Cebu airport waiting to see if they will restart later this afternoon/evening. Technically my flight is just "delayed"right now, so time will tell.

 

[aumexican]

I agree with what was said. No gloves WTF.
Have a chat to the person first and decide if they have a clue as to what is ok to lightly touch for stability. A good dive master should work that out on the first 1-2 dives.
I found Evolution over rated as well not sure I would recommend. But Gato Island was fantastic on the day we went. Perfect sunshine helps!
Give your self a couple of mornings to see the threshers as they are not always there and leave is my advice. That being said if you have a non diving companion the island is not a bad place to chill.
I found best food was the place next door to Evo on south side.

 

[WetPup]

Admittedly the no gloves thing didn't even raise an eyebrow. At home, on the Great Barrier Reef, they're pretty strict about no gloves, so I'm used to diving without them. But the tradeoff there is that I can use a pointer stick to keep myself in place (if necessary) without needing to put my hands on potentially nasty rocks, corals, sand, or bits of rope.

 

[charlier]

Ordinarily I'd be with you on the Indo thing, but I wanted to see the thresher sharks. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices...

All flights in and out of MNL appear to be cancelled right now. Currently stuck at Cebu airport waiting to see if they will restart later this afternoon/evening. Technically my flight is just "delayed"right now, so time will tell.

My wife and I might consider visiting, but only for thresher sharks. Do you think four days are about right? Which dive op would you recommend (I will hide my muck stick).

 

[WetPup]

I think Sea Explorers was the better dive op...BUT Evolution Diving has a better spot for the thresher shark sightings. Do the shark dives with Evolution at sunrise, then go dive with Sea Explorers the rest of the day? lol

4-5 days is enough IMO.

 

[charlier]

What might we expect for the rest of the day?

 

[Centrals]

If you are able to get to all the sites available then 4-5 days are not enough. However, some of the sites require enough clients to participate.
As for the pointer and gloves I believe the operator has the final say on the issue. As for the condescending comment from the DM, he was certainly not looking for tips!!!

 

[Centrals]

All flights in and out of MNL appear to be cancelled right now. Currently stuck at Cebu airport waiting to see if they will restart later this afternoon/evening. Technically my flight is just "delayed"right now, so time will tell.

You will get into Manila sometime to day but how about the land connection to Anilao?

 

[KenGordon]

In warm waters with a sensitive bottom I would prefer gloves and pointing sticks banned. I was in Indonesia this year and saw a lot of abuse caused by these. Divers using their hands to pull along the coral, guides manipulating animals with pointing sticks.

In Cozumel gloves are banned, I suppose pointer sticks are too as I saw none. It has current too.

The problem is that the many holiday divers do not have the skills to avoid damaging the environment and guides are incentivised by tips to mess with the wildlife.

 

[Diving Dubai]

Good report. TBH I was underwhelmed with Malapascua. I'm not really a much diver so those sites, while interesting did get a bit boring after a while. We went in August - the monsoon season and even though it wasn't stacked with divers, there were still quite a few on some sites

We had 2 dives on the Threasher shark dive. The first day was a 5am dive. Too many in experienced divers kicking up the silt all hanging off a rope - not my idea of fun. With all the day boats surfacing was a bit hit and miss, even with a 6' DSMB at the surface you needed to keep your eyes peeled.

On the second day we dropped at abut 4:30am as dawn broke. given it was quite dark at first, I elected to hover at 20m at the edge of the plateau (where you drop down the wall to the viewing area at 30m. I had 2 threshers swim over my shoulder from behind, so close I could have touched them. I had the best interaction. I went to the line as the light got better and saw the occasional shark in the gloom. There's just too much disturbance.

We didn't go to the whale shark dive because we had caught a cold, but others that went and saw their first whaleshark were underwhelmed because they acted like trained puppies. My first whaleshark was "in the wild" and a magical experience.

I wrote off the Philippine completely as a dive destination, however friend on mine who dive locally here, and thus have similar levels of expectations based on our excellent dive sites) visited Tubbataha and raved about it, so much so that they immediately booked to go back in 2017, so I'm keeping an open mind