Why go diving in Malapascua
Monad shoal off the coast of Malapascua is a cleaning station for thresher sharks and you are almost guaranteed to see them there – the best chance to see them in the Philippines for sure. There is also nice diving around Gato Island and Malapascua itself as well as Dona Marylin ferry wreck. Malapascua island is small and relaxed with no cars and a nice sandy beach.
What to see
Logistics
Malapascua is a small island off the northern tip of Cebu island. After flying to Cebu there is an option to arrange a private transfer – car and boat – or take a bus to Maya and then a ferry. Car ride takes about 3 hours and boat transfer is about 40 minutes to an hour depending on the weather. Bus takes about an hour longer plus waiting for bus and ferry. If your time is limited it is best to take private transfer.
There are many diveshops on the island. We dived with Evolution which had an excellent diving operation including technical diving. Their restaurant was nice and friendly with good vibe.
Thresher shark dive usually leaves at about 5am in the morning. Monad Shoal is less than an hour boat ride from the shore. It is a sunken island with a bottom at about 25 meters. The dive is basically to drop to 25 meters and wait for sharks to come to their cleaning station. There is a rope tight to the bottom to fence off the cleaning station and divers align along the rope. From what we understood diveshops try to stagger their departure times a little but it still can get busy at the bottom. Given the depth and the fact that the purpose of the dive is to see sharks at 25 meters it is best to dive on nitrox. Extra few minutes of bottom time after air guys go up can mean more shark sightings!
In addition to thresher shark morning dive there are day trips to Gato island with 3 dives and lunch or combination of Dona Marylin and Gato also with lunch. Gato island has a nice cave that one swims through with a chance to see sharks at the cave exit. There is also nice macro with various nudibranchs, cuttlefish, variety of reef fish and pretty corals. Dona Marylin is a large passenger ferry about 100m long that sunk in a typhoon about 20 years ago. It is overgrown with corals and is in good condition laying at recreational depth of 18-32 meters.
Dives around Malapascua itself are good for macro with frog fish, flamboyant cuttlefish, ghost pipefish and other photogenic marine life. There is also a sunset dive to see mandarin fish. All in all Malapascua trip is very well worth it and can also be combined with a trip to Moalboal on southwestern side of Cebu island.