"Thresher Sharks" a Malapascua Island Travel Page by Rastarigo

Before news about regular sighting of thresher shark came to the fore, Malapascua was scantily known as a little beach getaway until this rare underwater creature transformed the island's image as the next big thing in diving. This deep sea beauty is known to inhabit restrictive depths divers won't dare going and to see them in 20 meters, quite manageable even for fun divers, is something I couldn't just pass on. Seeing the thresher in person is our primary motivation in visiting Malapascua so the moment I got hold of my plane ticket I couldn't help but feel frisson in anticipation of an intimate encounter and wonder how I am going to react the moment such pelagic would appear on my face. And guess what? I saw and laid eyes on her full glory upclose and personal. We intended to dive only once for a thresher sighting due to lack of time and great heavens hadn't failed on us on our first and only dive done in Monad. Call me jammy git but that's the way it has to be. Priceless moment... I gotta blog about it in full details as in recounting every second of it from waking up as early as 5AM to descending to a barren submerged seamount that is Monad Shoal.

Let's see what the Internet has to say about thresher sharks. Take note how the article singled out the island of Malapascua.

FAMILY ALOPIIDAE (THRESHER SHARKS)

Identification: The pelagic thresher, like all thresher sharks, is distinguished by an extremely long tail fin that is as long as the rest of the body, moderately large eyes, but not extending onto the surface of the head, first dorsal fin about equidistant between the pectoral and pelvic fin bases, and pectoral fins with rounded apices. Coloration is a brilliant blue above, white below, but fading to gray rapidly after death.

Size: Maximum reported length is 387 cm.

Distribution: Oceanic and wide-ranging in the tropical and warm-temperate Pacific and Indian Oceans, but not found in the Atlantic.

Habitat: An active, strong-swimming shark ranging in depth from the surface down to at least 152 m. Although primarily an oceanic species it has been observed near coral reefs, in large lagoons, and over seamounts. It is highly migratory, but long-range movements for this shark are not well known. Genetic studies indicate a separation of stocks between the eastern and western Pacific Ocean. In southern California, it is associated with sea surface temperatures over 21°C.

General interest: An important species off Taiwan, with about 222 t landed yearly, and in the central Pacific. It enters the commercial shark catch off California and is sometimes caught in considerable numbers off the Pacific coast of Mexico and Gulf of California. The pelagic thresher is utilized for its meat (for human consumption), liver oil for vitamin-A extraction, hides for leather, and fins for shark-fin soup. Divers have viewed and photographed this shark on coral reefs and seamounts in the Gulf of California, the Red Sea, Indonesia and Micronesia. Recently, the Filipino island of Malapascua has become a center for sightings of pelagic threshers, which can be seen regularly on the edge of an underwater shoal just offshore from the island. The conservation status of this shark is uncertain, but it is considered vulnerable to overexploitation do to its very low fecundity and relatively high age at maturation. Despite its size, these sharks have small teeth and are relatively harmless to people.

I saw the biggest lionfish I have seen... in Monad Shoal. Unmindful of our presence, she is a potential photograph subject because she (lion fish in general) seems to stay in one place for a longer time, add to that the aura of flamboyance all over her. wish i had camera.

finding them requires peering into a cave hole with matching rubbing your right face (or left whichever way you are positioned)against the sand huh. i heard they are sheltered in the cave hole during the day to catch up on their sleep and leave at night to hunt their food. in contrast to other dive sites where seeing sharks requires staying on a dropoff and brave strong currents, here it's pretty easy. whitetips really love hanging out in gato island.

I saw loads of cuddly puffer fish in the waters of Gato Island. I couldn't believe they are that common here from teeny-weeny to jumbo. and the cutest of them all is the bloated puffer fish hovering on my shoulder pouting her mouth to my face as if she enjoyed my presence because she didn't budge an inch all throughout the time. i happened to pass by her as we were about to enter the dark underwater tunnel. is she the lady guard to the cave?

We found this venomous seasnake slithering through the rock wall of Gato Island. We kept our safe distance from a seemingly lethal find.

banded seasnake, then eel, so what's next? Gato Island comes with surprises really. all you need is byonic eyes. look to your left, to your right, below your crotch. if not, you might have missed something.

I saw them a few times in Anilao but quite amazed to see the smallest ever in Malapascua the size of a pea. With that constantly undulating body distinguished by bright white dots on a brown complexion, how can I not spot even a pea-sized sweetlips? they are like the brown brothers of clownfish.

oh i think these fellow were the common thing we saw in our night dive. you need to be a good spotter because they are camouflaged in the sand, seagrass or corals.
the list doesn't end here. it's just that i'm not yet familiar with the namegame. oh i forgot. we also saw elongated swordfish, seahorse, mantis shrimp, etc. etc. and... scorpionfish, yet the ugliest fish i've seen.