Marine life
THE PARADISTIC ISLAND FOR DIVERS
This small diving paradise is part of the Philippines. Malapascua is an island made for scuba diver! Its seabed offers an impressive diversity of fishes and corals but its major asset comes from the possibility to dive with thresher sharks all year long. This magnificent island is one of the only places where one can observe thresher shark, you must know that this shark species is very rare.
BEST TIME TO GO
You can go diving in Malapascua all year long. However, the vest period to scuba dive with manta rays is from November to the end of January. You can also go there between December and April if you prefer to go diving with hammer head sharks.
DIVING CONDITION
Visibility : from February to November, the visibility is medium, from 15 to 30 meters. The rest of the year it will be poorer with a 5 to 10 visibility due to the high concentration of plankton.
Currents : It varies depending on the dive site, from non to medium. Do not expect great drift diving in Malapascua.
Difficulty : Also it depend of the dive spot. Malapascua is suitable for beginners and experienced divers. The most famous dive site is Monad Shoal. It is, however, reserved for experienced divers as it is 20 meters deep. There if you are lucky you might encounter the magnificent thresher sharks using that dive spot as a cleaning station. It is necessary, to wake up very early to observe them. You can also see manta rays and mobulas over there. For beginners, we highly recommend Callanggaman Island dive site. There you will approach big fish such as sharks with white tips sharks and some smaller such as colorful nudibranch.
The water temperature at Malapascua is generally pretty warm, with 27°C to 30°C. Nevertheless, from December to January, it will be a bit fresher with 25°C.
WHAT DO SEE WHILE DIVING AND SNORKELING?
The Island of Malapascua has a very diverse fauna and flora. Indeed, its seabed is covered with a multitude of corals very colorful soft and hard and magnificent anemones. The fauna has nothing to envy to the marine flora. You will admire underwater the very rare and shy thresher sharks, but also school of hammerhead sharks, whitetip sharks, manta rays, mobula rays, eagle rays, tunas, barracudas, octopus and mackerel. If you are a macro diving lover, then be happy, you will for sure dive with plenty of nudibranchs, toadfish, porcupine fish, shrimps, crabs, pygmy seahorses, frogfish, butterfly fish and ghost pipe fishes .
So, do not hesitate any more, pack your luggage and go discover this little corner of paradise!
