Thresher Sharks, Malapascua

[Mucksavage]

Don't forget we have a beer girl to complement our pizza boy. All (pizza) bases covered . . .

 

[Cabbie]

Does Matt double as a beer boy as well ?

 

[jlovold]

Does Matt double as a beer boy as well ?

Nope. Thats David. And he usually works as DJ too.

 

[xariatay]

Exotic has a FB page, they always update their sightings... This is today's "20 minutes of thresher sharks up close and personal, a squadron of 8 devil rays and a leaping shark to finish..... not a bad morning dive really!!!" Gosh, i'm jeolous...
I second the suggestion to get nitrox certified... Imagine the thresher sharks circling & u have to ascend bcos your NDL is up...

 

[eagerbeaver]

We have FB too Photos of the schooling devil rays we've been seeing for the last week are there...

 

[jlovold]

I second the suggestion to get nitrox certified... Imagine the thresher sharks circling & u have to ascend bcos your NDL is up...

No, no, no! You have it all wrong! Get CCR-certified! Then you can stay down for hours!

 

[Manuel Sam]

Hi all,

I plan in future to witness thresher shark/s can anybody comment on diving in Malapuasca, and who has recently seen any threshers? Are they still around? What's the season for them and what kind of diving's best? LOB or Resort. Also any reccomendation on Dive Ops would be received with thanks.

I hear strobes not allowed and the dives are really early, so Im wondering how much light there would be, it would be nice to capture at least 1 or 2 good shots of them.

I was in Malapascua March 30 - April 4, and then Dumaguete April 5-9. Many thanks to Bobby (rab1412000), Dogdrjohn, Jigo, SnappytheDiver, JBB, and Rogersea for their kind advice.

We saw a thresher on the 31st and on the 2nd. On the 1st, we went to Kalangaman Island. On the 3rd and 4th, the threshers went on holiday.

Mantas were also on holiday, but we did see the devil rays (mobulas). On our last dive at Monad, also saw a huge school of small tunas near the surface chasing baitfish.

I had expected Monad to be a pile of rubble from past fishing activity, but it was surprisingly prolific, showing quite a bit of low-to-the-ground coral growth. Not much fish, but.....

Granted it will probably be a long haul and well beyond my lifetime before the coral ever recovers the lushness that it might have once exhibited before destructive fishing practices came about, but one encouraging sign was seeing an ornate ghostpipefish near a gorgonian right after our first thresher encounter.

We dove with Divelink:Cebu and were very satisfied with their service, friendly staff, and overall operation. About the only disadvantage is that they do not offer Nitrox. Relative to where we stayed at (the Tepanee Resort, which is where Angelina Restaurant is located), it was the easiest dive operation for us to walk to.

We were told that the threshers are there yearround - basically that there is no better month or months, altho it might be wise to avoid those months when the weather is not as favorable (supposedly the typhoon season during the summer). Those on this forum who have been there many times might have a different opinion.

Strobes are indeed not allowed. With their big round eyes adapted to deeper waters, I would imagine that threshers might be dazed by strobes, altho I have seen many strobe-lit thresher pictures - maybe those were taken when strobes were still allowed. I've attached my best shot, which was taken at ISO 800, F4.5, and 1/100th shutter speed at around 7:30AM on a rather cloudy day and poor viz. Fortunately, the shark wasn't moving very past.

During our time there, the water was blue from the surface down to about 10 meters. Beneath that was a green haze - hence the greenish color background. Viz down there was 6-7 meters at best, probably made worse by sand kicked up by the hordes of divers.

There were days when we were told to show up at the dive shop at 5:30, and sometimes at 6:00AM. One day we were told to show up at 5:00AM. So yes, indeed, very early!!!

Lastly as it pertains to Malapascua, Lighthouse Reef is a Mandarinfish dive at sunset that becomes a m nice macro dive at night. Deep Rock is great for nudis.

This was my first dive venture into the Philippines and I was very favorably impressed. Also, my first thresher sightings ever. I definitely need to do Malapascua a few more times until I have my fill of threshers.

Lodging and food are amazingly inexpensive compared to most other dive destinations, and the people are very nice.

Oh, and the mangos are absolutely the best.

 

[cim72lando]

We have FB too Photos of the schooling devil rays we've been seeing for the last week are there...

what a sighting of schooling devil rays, matt reed!