I'm probably pushing the definition of overseas club trip with this report since I was the only one there. I did ask the membership if anyone cared to join me but it was rather late notice and the middle of the week so perhaps no surprise that I embarked on this trip alone. The club has arranged trips to Malapascua in the past but for some reason they’ve never been written up and since I’d never been myself I was keen to take a look.
Malapascua, near Cebu in the Philippines, is renowned as one of the few places divers can reliably see thresher sharks…and that’s about all I knew about the place before setting off. I was always under the impression that the place had very little else to offer and that if you didn’t see the threshers, you were in for one dull dive. I was still keen to see these elusive sharks however and a recent visit by a friend afforded me some recommendations as to where to stay, who to dive with and where to eat – thank you Holly.
Booking the trip was a breeze. I emailed the dive shop (Divelink Cebu), gave them my details and arrival times and they arranged everything else from airport pick-up to room reservation. I booked the flight on line with Cebu Pacific who offer 1 direct flight to Cebu per day in each direction as well as a bunch of flights via Manila. From Hong Kong the direct flight departs after midnight and gets in at about 3am. Not the most sociable of hours but at least you’re not losing a day to travel. With Cebu Pacific you need to remember that they only give you 15kg of luggage allowance so if you’re not a light weight packer don’t forget to order the extra when you book the ticket.
From Cebu airport I was picked up in a comfortable van for the 3 hour drive to the ferry. I did my best to get some sleep but this wasn’t easy given that about half the road appeared to have been ploughed and my driver was an avid fan of heavy rock music played – LOUD! I contemplated lodging a complaint about the latter but figured sleep deprivation was a small price to pay for keeping my driver awake.
A banca was waiting to whisk me off for the final 45 minute ride to Malapascua itself but any hopes I had of arriving in time for the first thresher shark dive of the day were quashed as that boat was headed out just as I was approaching the beach. Instead I dropped off my dive gear at the shop and checked into my basic but comfortable room to rest up before getting on with the serious business of diving.
The dive shops head out at dawn each day for Monad Shoal where the Thresher Sharks are known to visit. Each shops definition of dawn however would appear to differ and while you might conscientiously haul your arse to the dive shop at 5am in the morning, there’s no guarantee that your boat crew wont still be scratching theirs in bed. When this happens it’s best to remind yourself that this is the Philippines and things rarely go to plan in this part of the world.
I’d timed my trip to coincide with the coming of the new moon as some sources suggested this was the best time to ensure the threshers appear but without doubt luck also needs to be on your side. I dived the shoal twice at dawn but only saw the threshers the first time and I understand that on the day following my last dive, threshers were also absent. If the new moon is a good time to visit I’d seriously question the wisdom of going at any other time! It has been said that the presence of too many divers are what’s putting off the threshers and this could well be true.
Typically 6-8 bancas will be moored up on buoys in the area and that means a lot of divers and bubbles. The threshers are shy and the dive briefings emphasise the importance of turning off camera strobes and keeping still but with so many people vying for a look, collective discipline is a hard thing to maintain and it wouldn’t surprise me if the sharks are changing their behaviour to minimise these encounters. A popular ploy for the dive guides is to wave a shiny knife blade about. The glittering is supposed to attract the attention of the threshers. Can’t say I’m convinced.
While you’re waiting on the shoal it’s worth keeping your eyes open for octopus and morays as well as passing devil rays but the only reason folk are there is for the threshers and when they do make an appearance the waiting is definitely worth while. Large, sleek and silvery, if you’re lucky they will overcome their aloofness and swim through the middle of their audience such that everyone gets a great view. Having elected to set my camera to video mode to cope with the low light conditions and expected distance to the subject, I found myself scrambling at one point to try and get a portrait as one thresher came within a few meters of me but alas I was all fingers and thumbs.
The DM’s at Divelink Cebu like to stretch their bottom times and happily go into deco in the hope of seeing a shark. Pays to have good air consumption and to know how much air you need to carry out your deco obligations. A few less savvy clients were spotted buddy breathing off their guide’s tanks!
Given the risk that you could visit Malapascua for a few days and not see any threshers it’s worth knowing that the island offers several other top drawer dive sites. The best of these was definitely Gato Island. A small island with a good swim through, lots of colourful corals and a lot of fish and critters in residence. Every visit produced sightings of big mouth mackerel, white tip sharks (normally asleep though some will circle the entrance of the swim through), cuttlefish, nudibranchs galore and harlequin ghost pipefish. Malapascua Island itself also boasts an excellent sunset and night dive with regular mating displays by colourful mandarin fish, large sea horses and one of the tiniest cuttlefish I’ve ever seen. Fans of frog fish should head to Lapus Lapus Island. The folk at Divelink were happy to let the divers dictate the length of the dives and as such it was typical for bottom times to stretch to 90 minutes when depth and air permitted. The guides were also very happy to find subjects for photographers even if their habit of manipulating the scene should strictly speaking be frowned upon.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself even though I was there on my own. A combination of cheap restaurants as well as one of the best Italian places I’ve eaten in meant that even the evenings had something to recommend them. There is a beach strip on which the majority of bars and resorts are located and those looking for livelier entertainment can always head here but the island on the whole is spared the din of nightclubs and late night bars.
Malapascua – well worth a visit.
Bruce