| Malapascua is a small tropical island in the Visayas sea | | | | the late Steve Irwin (Yes, the Australian croc-man) |
| in the Philippines. About fifteen years ago word spread | | | | came along and did a wildlife documentary on the |
| from local fishermen, that thresher sharks were often | | | | thresher sharks at monad shoal. That perhaps was |
| seen jumping out of the water at Monad Shoal in the | | | | what really opened people’s eyes to the beauty of |
| morning. It didn’t take much more than that for | | | | the shy, silvery and bigeyed sharks. |
| pioneer divers to find their way there and get in to see | | | | Today Malapascua Island is still a minor tourism |
| the amazing sharks, something not possible anywhere | | | | destination in the Philippines, and the majority of the |
| else in the world! | | | | people who go there are divers. Besides the thresher |
| The reason why thresher sharks are usually never | | | | sharks, the island actually offers excellent world-class |
| sighted by divers, is that most of the time they are | | | | diving, expecially for muck divers or people interested |
| simply too deep, hundreds of meter below the depth | | | | in manta rays, as they can be seen year round. If |
| dived by most recreational divers, so even though | | | | interested you may find more specific information |
| divers and sharks may share the same bodies of | | | | about the diving at where there's descriptions of the |
| water, they wouldn’t meet. However, like most | | | | individual dive sites. It is speculated that the ratio of |
| other fish thresher sharks need to get periodically | | | | tourists who go there will change in the immediate |
| cleaned of parasites, and it is this that brings them to | | | | future, and that the island will become the next |
| Monad Shoal, where there’s large colonies of | | | | Boracay of the Philippines. Malapascua is a real bounty |
| cleaner fish. | | | | island, offering beautiful white beaches, lush palmtrees, |
| Malapascua would likely have remained unknown | | | | amazingly blue water and friendly locals. With exciting |
| outside of a very small group of pioneer divers, if it | | | | activities, excellent diving, good bars and restaurant it |
| hadn’t been for some German photographers and | | | | does indeed seem like it’s a possibility. |
| writers connected with leading German scuba | | | | There’s currenty about half a dozen dive shops, |
| magazines, who came along later and told the story. | | | | mostly small outfits, about as many restaurants |
| After this, divers inevitably started coming to | | | | offering local and foreign food, and a dozen or so |
| Malapascua, resulting in a few dive operators opening | | | | places to stay. |
| shops and resorts. The word further spread, when | | | | |