Malapascua

[jigo]

So which shop do you favor now Mike? TSD or exotic?

 

[Babydamulag]

Is Gutsy still diving at Exotic? I haven't seen any of his work lately.

 

[Magnus.s]

Koreans, my bad...

Bohol was to windy, "all" diving was canceled so I continued to Sabang.

3 frogs yesterday, a black standing on a red... pygmy seahorses this morning, right now I wondering why I have been going to Thailand / Burma all these times...

// Magnus;

 

[pyrodiver]

I haven't tried other resorts in Malapascua but I was very happy with Exotic. Here's my one and only photo of the Thresher...

I should go back again to Malapascua to get a better shot.

 

[kosmonooit]

Hello all 1st post... just a few words on my experiences from my 6 days at Malapascua In April this year.

I made three early morning dives to the Monad Shoal but sadly no Threshers ... and there was always so many divers there, who can blame the sharks from shying away. Yea I know its luck but it seems so commercialised I got the feeling its over....

Also other diving around there in terms of aquatic life had nothing on Puerto Galeria where I had just been, it seems to me that the local reefs are really fished out, nothing much except "macro"

On a trip out to Chocolate Island there were some locals on boat with a compressor feeding some tubes which the guys diving were using to breeth, and they were spearing anything that moved, there really was not much to see once down there.

I stayed at Hippocampus and dived with Sea Explorers (after a brief spell with the poms at Threshers) - that was okay but the groups are big and its mass production all around. Hippocampus was a nice place to stay, Sea Ex is right next door.

It seems the whole diving business is at the advanced stage of commercialisation there. which is good in way in terms of facilities and shops, but really there are too many divers going to Monad each day.

And the real shame is that the locals are wiping out the reef stocks - sure who can blame them if its a question of survival, but its a disaster for tourism, and people there should be given some incentives for protecting and not wiping out reef fish stocks. But the Phillippines is such a corrupt mess, guess thats a very low priority on the national agenda.

 

[Babydamulag]

.....and you are?
.....your opinion counts only if you lend credability to your post.
.....your experience level of diving in the Philippines is?
.....and I always thought a pom meant "alternative-lifestyle"....jeez!

 

[kosmonooit]

Hello again I am someone with an experience that feels compelled to share it .... and no need to mince my words. If you disagree say it, dont just diss me coz its my first post here.

Whilst I am rookie diver, I have been a (relatively educated) nature lover all my life. We have similar situation with wild game here in Africa: locals needing to eat, the money tourism brings in, and the issue of sustainability.

Salamat po.

 

[pyrodiver]

My experience, stay in 1 place in Monad shoal. Don't move around. Look for the cleaner fish... the sharks come up to be cleaned... they have places where the cleaners are, and the sharks knows this location.

I stayed in a cleaner station that was only 16m and waited patiently... and yes, while waiting for the shark to come, I found a harlequin shrimp chomping on a blue starfish... Not bad for a days dive...

 

[pakman]

Hello again I am someone with an experience that feels compelled to share it .... and no need to mince my words. If you disagree say it, dont just diss me coz its my first post here.

Whilst I am rookie diver, I have been a (relatively educated) nature lover all my life. We have similar situation with wild game here in Africa: locals needing to eat, the money tourism brings in, and the issue of sustainability.

Salamat po.

welcome kosmonooit... don't mind BabyD... He's got a minor case of online tourette's syndrome

Sorry to hear about your experience on Malapascua. Yeah, not happy to hear you saw hookah divers spearing fish and you didn't get threshers on monad shoal. I didn't have high hopes for the diving on Chocolate Island when we went there last weekend, given it's proximity to the Cebu mainland. But if you like small stuff, Chocolate Island was actually an enjoyable dive - Banded pipefish, tons of whip coral with gobies and shrimps, pegasus fish and even a pair of harlequin shrimp.

 

[clgsamson]

BabyD, lighten up, the man is just expressing his opinion to what he saw and experienced.

Kosmo - Charge it to bad timing. I take exception to your last sentence though, you don't know what you are talking about.