Malapascua is the place to dive with thresher sharks. This tiny island in the Philippines is a true scuba diver’s paradise where life quietly goes on. Read all about the snorkeling and diving in Malapascua below, along with our additional tips for this tiny island.
Content of this blog:
All you need to know about diving with thresher sharks in Malapascua
Diving is the number one activity in Malapascua. Everyone comes to this island to dive with thresher sharks. To be perfectly honest, we also wouldn’t recommend Malapascua if you don’t dive. In fact, there are more fun, enjoyable and beautiful islands in the Philippines for non-divers.
But for divers, Malapascua is the place to be in The Philippines. Only in Malapascua you can dive every day with the thresher sharks, nowhere else in the world will you find this! So Malapascua is not to be missed when diving, the picture below says it all, right?
It does not matter much which diving school on Malapascua you choose. All diving schools dive around the same area, where the thresher sharks are daily. Pick a dive school you feel comfortable with and possibly check the reviews on Google before choosing one. At all diving schools, you sail out very early (around 5 a.m.) to see thresher sharks right on the first dive.
The first two dives of the day are at Monad Shoal. This is an island underwater. Here, you dive at about 12 meters deep. After you descend with the group you can already see the first thresher sharks in the distance. During our two dives we saw as many as 15 thresher sharks! They are really insanely beautiful animals that swim very elegantly. The thresher sharks seem very curious with their big eyes. They circled in large groups around all the divers.
At the beginning of the first dive there were about three other groups of divers and then it became considerably busier. On the second dive, we were the only ones with another group. Good to know: unfortunately, the diving schools in Malapascua do feed the thresher sharks. They admitted this honestly after we asked.
After the first two dives with the thresher sharks, you will sail a bit further to Kimud Shoal to (hopefully) catch a glimpse of a tiger shark or a bullshark. These are not spotted daily so you have to be lucky to see one. The underwater environment is not very nice, there are few fish and coral at this spot so don’t expect too much here.
We went out ourselves with Dan’s Dive Malapascua. This is one of the cheapest providers of diving with thresher sharks. For a dive with thresher sharks you need at least your open water certificate. It is also good to know that your last dive should not be more than 6 months ago. In fact, Leon had to do a refresher course before he was allowed to dive with thresher sharks. And to be honest, this felt good afterwards to have everything fresh in your mind again before diving with these big sharks.
The thresher shark: an unusual species of shark
The thresher shark is a unique species of shark that looks very different from the sharks you know. It is the only shark species with a tremendously long tail that can be as long as the rest of its body. They can grow up to 7.6 meters from head to tail and weigh 340 pounds. Another recognizable feature of thresher sharks are their large eyes. There are, as far as we know, three species of thresher sharks: the pelagic thresher shark, the big-eyed thresher shark and the normal thresher shark. In Malapascua you will dive with big-eyed thresher sharks.
Are thresher sharks dangerous?
We can reassure you: thresher sharks are generally not dangerous or aggresive to humans. Accidents can always happen, of course, so you should always be on your guard when diving with thresher sharks. Especially the thresher shark’s 3-meter-long tail can be dangerous. You don’t want to get swatted by this long tail. Therefore, always keep enough distance from the thresher shark during the dive.
Snorkeling tour around the island
Not done with the underwater world yet? Then we have a very nice snorkel tour option for you. Through our accommodation JPH Resort we booked this snorkel tour around the island and we really liked it. The skipper and his son are super friendly and take you to the most beautiful spots around Malapascua. The first stop is snorkeling with baby sharks. We couldn’t find them ourselves but the skipper jumped into the water to show us the location and then suddenly we were swimming among dozens of baby sharks: “Baby shark tututu tututudu!”.
You snorkel here with black tip sharks. These are small reef sharks and they are not dangerous to humans. If you swim too wildly and get too close, they will swim away from you fast. These black tip sharks are approximately a meter long.
You are about 3 – 4 hours away and you pay 1200 peso (€20) for the private boat. Of course, for such a small amount you can tip quite a bit, we gave 2000 peso in total. The skipper’s phone number is +63 0906 895 2602, which you can only call, not WhatsApp. You can also easily arrange this snorkeling tour in Malapascua through JPH Resort.
Bounty beach Malapascua: this is where you will find the coziness
Malapascua is a small island of which Bounty Beach is by far the coziest. Bounty Beach is located on the south side of Malapascua. You will not find here a tropical bounty beach as you imagine it in your mind, for that you have to be on Palawan at El Nido or the Expedition. For us, there are three highlights on this beach that you must try during your stay on Malapascua.
Chilling out at Ocean Vida Beach
The ultimate place to relax on Malapascua with a beautiful view is at Ocean Vida Beach. Here there are many beanbags and sunbeds on the beach that you can use if you buy a drink. In the evening during sunset you can also stay here or – if you want to see the sunset even better – you can go to Sunset Beach.
really delicious food at Villa Potenciana
The very best food on the entire island can be found at Villa Potenciana. The restaurant is completely vegetarian, with many vegan options. The flavors are fantastic and they prepare (almost) every cuisine you can think of. The portions are not very large. Ideal, because then you can share an extra dish :). Besides good food, you will also find a lot of conviviality here. Every evening you can enjoy live music here.
Have a wonderful massage after diving at Malapascua Legend Water Sports & Dive Resort
For us, this is one of the best massages we have had in the Philippines. This one is also in our personal top 5 massages in Southeast Asia. After a day of diving with thresher sharks in Malapascua, you could probably use a relaxing massage: this is the place to be.
Sunset Beach Malapascua
Sunset Beach is located at the Tepanee Beach Resort (which, by the way, is also a beautiful place to stay). Starting at 5:30 p.m., it gets busier and busier with everyone coming here to watch the sunset. Sunset beach is a popular beach on Malapascua.
White sand beach
White Sand Beach is located at the very northern tip of Malapascua. You can walk here from the “center” of Malapascua, but that will take you about 30 – 40 minutes of walking. Don’t feel like doing this? Then you can ask one of the many locals with a motorbike to take you to White Sand Beach for 50 pesos (€0.85).
White Sand Beach is super quiet and, as the name suggests, you will find super white sand. Unfortunately, the current was wrong when we were there and there was also a lot of garbage washed up. Therefore, we soon left, but it was still a nice place to have seen on Malapascua.
