Thresher Shark Divers is a well-established dive operator in Malapascua, offering a range of diving experiences in the heart of the Coral Triangle.
Specializing in encounters with thresher sharks at Monad Shoal, the shop also provides reef, wreck, wall, muck, and night dives.
Based on Bounty Beach, Malapascua Island, just off the north tip of Cebu in the Philippines.
Dive Overview
A range of unique dive adventures offered, things to see include thresher sharks, manta rays, devil rays, whitetip sharks, hammerheads, pygmy seahorses, cuttlefish, nudibranchs, smashing mantis shrimp, pipefish, mandarin fish, and more! Make a request on what you would like to see, and they will accommodate, even if you are the only one on the boat!
Thresher Shark Divers is located on Malapascua's main beach and can book accommodation at most of the resorts on the island. Check out some of their trusted resorts below!
Blanco Resort
Blanco Resort is a family-owned boutique resort offering modern deluxe rooms with stunning sea views. Located just a five-minute walk from Thresher Shark Divers, the resort also features a private beach adjacent to Tepanee’s blacktip snorkelling area.
Blue Coral Resort
Blue Coral is a mid-range resort offering excellent value, especially in its sea-view rooms, which boast stunning ocean vistas. It provides a comfortable and convenient stay for divers and travelers seeking quality accommodations in Malapascua.
Cocobana Beach Resort
Cocobana Resort, the first resort in Malapascua, offers a range of accommodations just 30 meters from Thresher Shark Divers. Located on the main beach, it features a pool, spacious Super Deluxe AC rooms with modern amenities, and budget-friendly fan rooms, all within easy reach of the dive center.
Hippocampus Resort
Hippocampus Resort offers a comfortable retreat after a day of diving, featuring AC-equipped rooms in Standard, Superior, and Deluxe categories. With a prime beachfront location and high demand, advance booking is recommended.
Malapascua has a great variety of dive sites - we've got big stuff and small stuff, reefs and wrecks, amazing coral dives and sandy muck dives, wall dives and night dives. Because the diving is in different areas and with many different influences there is a great variety of marine life. All our dive sites have excellent macro, so there is always plenty to see. Some divers have rated Malapascua's dive spots as some of the world's best diving!
Monad Shoal - 26m+ / 20 mins
Monad Shoal is an underwater island on the edge of a 200m drop-off, and if you're on this page, we're sure you already know that it is famous as the only place in the world where thresher sharks can be seen every day!
TSD dives a special area for the sharks. Most places will take you to a line where you sit and wait for 30 minutes with all the other divers from all the other shops. TSDI dive is not like that; it is a swimming dive. Close encounters are common, you generally won't run into many, if any, other divers. As you are swimming, you will see other marine life too, so in the rare instance you don't see a shark, you will still have had a great dive!
The shoal also attracts other pelagics such as large rays and other species of shark. Monad Shoal is perfect for Nitrox. TSD also offers a unique PADI Thresher Shark Diver Specialty Course. Please note that this is a slightly more advanced dive site.
Gato Island - 24m / 40 mins
Gato Island is one of our most famous dive sites. TSD's famous saying is that "You come to Malapascua to see the thresher sharks, but you leave remembering Gato". Gato is a marine reserve and sea snake sanctuary. It has at least five dive sites with a huge diversity of marine life. We are constantly seeing new creatures. At all sites, you can see such things as banded sea snakes, cuttlefish (often while mating), seahorses, nudibranchs, frogfish, scorpionfish, porcupine fish, and smashing mantis shrimp. Away from the reef, you can see schools of squid and big-mouthed mackerel attracted by the baitballs. There are many whitetip sharks in residence at Gato, as well as bamboo and catsharks. The coral is in good condition and the rocky island has many interesting underwater rock formations, overhangs, and swim-throughs.
Whitetip Alley - 20m / 40 mins
You are 95% guaranteed to find whitetip sharks sleeping under rocks, and if you are lucky you will see them circling. They grow to huge sizes - sometimes over 2 meters. Other life here includes banded boxer shrimp, nudis, seahorses and scorpion fish, spider crabs, frogfish, lionfish and whip coral shrimp, perfectly color matched to the huge whip corals found inside the 'Seahorse Cave'.
The Guardhouse - 24m / 40 mins
Drop down to 24m to find the extremely rare pygmy seahorse, both pink and yellow as well as spider crabs and cowries. Then work your way back along a wall where you can find lionfish and many nudibranchs, including the beautiful Spanish dancers, up to 30cm long. Painted frogfish are often in residence.
The Cave - 10m / 40 mins
Or more accurately, "The Tunnel". Journey underneath Gato Island and come out the other side! This 30m tunnel houses all the usual cave dwellers: many types of crab big and small, lobsters and cardinal fish. You should also encounter some large puffer fish and perhaps bamboo and catsharks.
Dive Schedule
5 am - 7 am - Thresher Shark Dive
Our first dive of the day is at 5.30am and it is well worth getting up this early. We provide plenty of coffee and tea, and you will get to see an amazing sunrise. On the dive, you should get to see the rare sight of thresher sharks! You will be back in time for an early breakfast. If you wish to leave earlier or later we are very flexible. In hammerhead season we often leave earlier to catch them at the break of dawn.
Day Dives During the day we have single dives at 10 am and 2 pm, or 2-3 tank day trips, depending on the dive site. See our list of dive sites for more information.
5 pm - Thresher Shark Divers Famous Randy Mandy Dive!
In the late afternoon, we dive Lighthouse, where the rare and psychedelic mandarin fish are guaranteed. Do not miss the exotic mating dance of the male and his adoring females.
6 pm - Night Dive
We also regularly run full night dives to other sites around Malapascua. The sites are very different in the dark, so it is a great idea to do a few of these both by day and by night!
About the Thresher Sharks
TSD has a very special spot where we dive for threshers and we believe it is the best shark experience you will get on Malapascua! Here are the reasons:
TSD dives in a different area, where there are rarely any other boats and it has many cleaning stations. So it’s never too busy. We have spectacular, often close up sightings almost every day, in a much more private setting. It’s is also more interesting as it’s a “swimming” dive with the chance to see many other creatures like frogfish and ghost pipefish as well as other pelagics like rays and other sharks!
Most other shops go to one of two very small cleaning stations to see the sharks. Here the divers stay in the same spot and kneel behind a rope waiting for a shark to appear. There are usually 4-8 boats at each spot so you will see a lot of other divers and there is not much to see if you do not see a shark.
Dive price is per person in PHP. Fun dive includes tank, weights, boat, DM. All prices subject to change without notice due to unforeseen circumstances. 4 dives a day are usually offered including an early morning shark dive and a mandarin fish dusk or night dive. More dives can be arranged on request.
Option
Rate
Fun dive (0-9 dives)
1,550
Fun dive (10+ dives each)
1,450
Additional Charges
Equipment rental is for BC and reg, plus any of the following: mask, snorkel, fins, booties, wetsuit.
Extra
Rate
Marine park fee (per day)
150
Monad Shoal Diver fee (per dive)
50
Equipment rental (per dive)
350
Night dive surcharge
300
Nitrox
350
Nitrox 10 dive package
2,500
Dona Marilyn Wreck Trip (fuel surcharge)
350
Calangaman Trip (fuel surchg + park fee )
varies
Kimud Shoal (fuel surcharge)
250
Resort Rates
All rooms include breakfast for 2 and come with en-suite bathrooms.
Blue Coral Resort
Room
Rate
Deluxe AC
3,200
Junior AC
3,000
Garden View AC
2,700
Standard Suite
2,050
Standard Fan
1,900
Garden View Fan
1,700
Meal Plan
Breakfast is usually provided at the resort. Not many resorts offer full board, so lunch and dinner are usually at Oscar’s restaurant, located in an open-air second storey beachfront restaurant at the dive shop.
Meal
Rate (PHP)
Lunch
350
Dinner
650
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Reviews
Practical information
Local Currency
PHP (Philippines Peso)
International Airport
Cebu-Mactan International Airport
Language
Filipino & English
Time Zone
UTC+8
Payment methods
Cash (any currency), credit card and internet bank transfer
Electricity
220V
Check availability and start planning your perfect trip
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Most exciting of all, the cave is home to whitetip sharks! You may see them hiding in a corner as you pass by inches from their face, or see their silhouette as they circle near the exit in the midst of a huge school of smaller fish. If you are careful and move slowly, they will swim straight by your face. The sight of Malapascua Gato Cave is simply breathtaking. Not for the faint of heart. For experienced divers only.
At the exit of the cave are some overhangs and swim-throughs were even inexperienced divers who cannot swim through the cave can get up close to the baby whitetips sleeping under the rocks.
Lighthouse - 10m / 5 mins
The mandarin fish is possibly the most beautiful fish in the world, certainly the most psychedelic. There are few places where they can be seen, but Malapascua is one of them. And - even better - on Thresher Diver's famous "Randy Mandy" dive you will see mating mandarin fish in their full glory!
Mandarin fish are quite rare and very skittish, but in Malapascua, you are almost guaranteed a sighting at this time of day. You will usually see their unique mating dance, particularly around full moon. The male (who is larger) dances with the females one by one and takes his time choosing. When he finally decides on his mate, they spiral up towards the surface, shimmying together above the corals, explode in a puff of gametes, and dart off separately into the corals.
A unique experience, not to be missed. What a photography opportunity!
Dusk is a time most people rarely dive. However, it is one of the best times to observe marine life because of the increased feeding and mating activity. It is the time when all the action takes place on the reef! Daytime animals mix with night-time animals, and all hell breaks loose!
As day turns into night, and the mandarin fish return to their hiding places, the creatures of the night come out. You should catch some interesting nudibranchs and a variety of cephalopods - reef squid, bobtail squid, starry night octopus, blue-ringed octopus and cuttlefish. Your DM will take you to find some seahorses and you may also see scribbled and banded pipefish, juvenile sweetlips, banded sea snakes,
huge crabs and sea stars, many varieties of shrimp and the occasional frogfish.
Many of our divers have told us this is the best night dive they have ever done.
Also near this site is a small World War II wreck that is a great shallow dive during the day.
Nudibranch City - 22m / 40 mins
As the name implies, we find nudibranchs galore at this site. Also around are lots of hermit crabs and scorpion fish.
Cathedral - 22m / 40 mins
Explore some of the more amazing rock formations around Gato, including the stunning Cathedral rock. This is a great place to see sharks - we have seen as many as 15 whitetips circling. It is also possible to see blue-spotted rays.
Calanggaman Island - 40m+ / 90 mins
Calanggaman Island is the picture postcard desert island, actually chosen from over 7,000 islands to grace the cover of Jens Peters - the definitive Philippines Travel Guide. The island itself is just palm trees and a pile of white sand surrounded by crystal clear water and steep walls dropping off into the blue.
Vis is usually good and fish life is plentiful. Drop down the walls which are covered with hard corals and gorgonian fans and inhabited by many varieties of fish. Look for pelagics out in the blue including sharks, rays, tuna and barracuda, or unusual fish like clown triggers on the wall. You can also see many critters including nudibranchs, crabs and shrimp. As you come back along the top of the wall, look for fields of garden eels, and large patches of hammerhead nudis which always seem to be mating! You can often find the beautiful white mushroom coral pipefish, ornate ghost pipefish and candy crabs as well as the very special Denise Pygmy seahorse which is currently in residence.
Dolphins are often seen on the way there or back.
Often we will stop on the island for a beach barbecue during our surface interval and overnight stays can also be arranged.
House Reef - 9m / 5 mins
We have been building and artificial House Reef since 2008 and it is starting to attract plenty of life. It has several old boats, a basketball hoop, Stonehenge, a toilet and several other structures that have been constructed especially for the reef.
Shore Diving - 5m
Shore diving is limited but possible. It is very shallow off the main beach, and you will have to swim out for 200m to get even 3m. However, there are some good things to see. The first 100m is mostly sea grass, but it hides beautiful starfish, puffers, pipefish, nudibranchs, small octopus, and is the schooling ground for many juveniles. The seagrass turns into hard coral, home to schools of cardinalfish, damselfish and sergeant majors. Look carefully and you can find lionfish, moray eels and incredibly well camouflaged and very weird looking sea hares. Occasionally seen are the blue-ringed octopus and eagle rays. You must do this dive with a float or SMB above you at all times as it is so shallow.
Lighthouse Wreck - 5m / 5 mins
The wreck at Lighthouse was a Japanese World War II landing craft. It was bombed just before landing with a large shipment of cement destined for a gun emplacement. The wreck is in very shallow water - 3m average - and is broken up with the hull in two pieces. The nearby rocks that you will see are actually bags of cement and you can still see the weave imprints on some of them!
Marine life around the wreck includes yellow-tailed barracuda, hermit crabs, octopus, pipefish, juvenile harlequin sweetlips, and banded sea snakes. This is a great boat for wreck diving newbies and you may even dive on it during PADI Open Water course dives. It is also perfect for practicing reel use and running a line in preparation for wreck penetration into the Dona Marilyn Wreck (shown here) on the PADI Wreck Diver Specialty Course.
Nearby is Lighthouse (see above) - easily reached from the wreck to see abundant mandarin fish and seahorses.
Dona Marilyn Wreck - 18m-32m / 90 mins
The Dona Marilyn was a Cebu-Manila passenger ferry that sank in a typhoon over 20 years ago. It was a huge disaster and many people lost their lives. The wreck is around 100m long, and now lying on its starboard side, amazingly still all in one piece. Long lost fishing nets encrusted in coral are draped all over it, giving it quite a spooky feel!
Marble rays, blue-spotted rays and whitetip sharks live under the bow and eagle rays and devil rays sometimes pass through. The wreck is covered in a healthy growth of soft coral, and the resident fish grow to a large size. Several varieties of sweetlips grow bigger here than at any of our other dive sites and the juveniles are often seen. Large cuttlefish and scorpionfish are common as well as nudibranchs and flatworms. A giant moray eel is living in the wreck. You can also see many of the beautiful purple fire sea urchins, accompanied by their resident zebra crabs and Coleman's shrimp. Penetration is possible for qualified divers. There are lots to see inside as it has remained unsalvaged.
