In late 2011, Thresher Shark Divers starting diving a new ‘secret’ dive site for thresher sharks. ‘Shark Wall’ is still part of Monad Shoal, and is just a little south of our original site.

‘Shark Wall’ by name and most definitely ‘Shark Wall’ by nature, there has been a massive increase in quality and quantity of sharks sightings. Shark sighting here have been ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!!! In our 9 years of diving on Malapascua Island, we have never had this many sharks around! It is usual to see 6-8 sharks on a dive. Often there are 20 sightings reported, and even as many as 30!!!  So many that even the DMs stop counting!

Gone are the days of dropping straight down to 22 meters and sitting on the reef waiting for one shark to appear, maybe two if you are very lucky. These days, on Shark Wall you will generally drop in at a shallower depth of 10-12 meters. You will likely see few other divers, swim around a lot more, and it is also possible to go over the wall in certain places. The shark encounters themselves have also been of a higher quality, with often several sharks at once, and sharks coming closer and for a longer time.

Whilst at the old ‘Shark Point’ the sharks were almost always coming to be cleaned, on Shark Wall, although cleaning still occurs, some seem to be just hanging out cruising the reef.

In February we also started seeing baby thresher sharks, including three at once! Incredibly cute, but also great news for the population numbers in Malapascua as it means they are breeding. As thresher mammas only give birth to small numbers at a time and there are at least three juveniles here right now, this may mean more than one recent litter. This is great news for an endangered species like the thresher shark!

All photographs on this page were taken in early February by Uwe Jacobs. In the series below, the shark just kept coming and coming until it was almost kissing him, before making a last minute turn!

Coming...

...coming...

...coming...

... a quick smooch and it's off...

For more photos by Uwe, checkout the gallery on our facebook page.

So there has never been a better time to come to Malapascua! Contact us to arrange your shark diving package now!

Andrea and Chris both celebrated their birthdays, Manuella reached her 100^th dive, Martin and Martina both qualified as PADI Divemasters after the final snorkel test…

Martina gives the okay to start her snorkel test, while Martin looks on in dread....

But he survived his snorkel test! New PADI Divemaster Martin with Instructor, Jo

Martina, new PADI DM with Instructor Angus

….and we had 5 freshly qualified PADI Instructors who just completed the PADI IDC and passed their Instructor Exam that day. Another 100% pass rate for TSD!  A big ‘Well done’ to Lee, Henry, Mac, Martin, Judith and of course their Course Director, Rich. The biggest IE ever on Malapascua hopefully means plenty more to come!

The night commenced with liquid award ceremonies….

TSDs newest PADI Instructors, L-R: Mac, Henry, Martin, Judith and Lee

…and ended with some bizarre Filipino party games: Trip to Jerusalem, Musical Chairs, Apple Munching, Egg Breaking, Tomato Dance and Paper Dance, with prizes given to the victorious.

Apple munching....

... Egg Breaking....

...Tomato Dance. or is that Tomato Squashing!

Strangely enough the games all seemed to be sly variations on the theme of getting very close to the opposite sex, so much fun was had by all!

But there is one creature for which the opposite is true – the dreaded crown of thorns sea star.

The crown of thorns or Acanthaster planci is the second largest sea star in the world. About 30 cm in diameter with up to 21 arms, it can race across a reef covering up to 20 meters in an hour. It is covered in venomous spikes which can pierce a wetsuit and give a nasty sting to humans.

The crown of thorns presents another big problem – it is a voracious consumer of hard coral. When numbers grow too large, an invasion of these starfish can decimate a reef, as has been widely publicised in several areas including the Great Barrier Reef.

The crown of thorn has only one main predator, the Giant Triton, which can keep the numbers of crown of thorns in check.

Tritons, once plentiful, are now a rare sight in the Philippines except on shop shelves

Sadly, the triton has been hunted to near extinction due to its beautiful shell and because of this, numbers of crown of thorns can sometimes grow out of control.

A small number of these sea stars can exist on a reef without any harm being done and when I first arrived in Malapascua 8 years ago, I would see the occasional crown of thorns. Then, in 2005, diving the sites around Malapascua Island every day, I saw their numbers slowly increasing, until the population boomed and suddenly they were everywhere.  Even when snorkelling in front of the dive shop, I sometimes saw 10 or more creatures per square meter, often so many they were piled up on top of each other.

I felt we had to do something – but what?  It is very difficult to control such outbreaks and there was no sure-fire way to eradicate them. Every removal method that we investigated had its drawbacks.

In the end, Thresher Shark Divers got together with two other businesses on Malapascua and arranged to send out local fishermen to ‘catch’ as many as they could. The dive sites around the island are all very shallow, so it was relatively easy for them. We brought the offending creatures back to shore, rented a local piece of land, and buried them.

Collecting the corn of thorns

The fishermen were compensated with a fee of PHP1 per sea star (approx. USD $0.02 or GBP £0.01), paid for by the 3 businesses.

Whilst this seems like a paltry amount, none of us could possibly have predicted quite how much money we would have to pay out!  Over the course of 3 weeks, the fishermen made a princely sum of PHP 40,000 (approx. US$1,000 or £600), an amount far and above what they would have made fishing.

So if you have already done the simple maths, you would have worked out that we removed 40,000 crown of thorns from Malapascua’s waters!!!!

Only one of the mounds of crown of thorns taken from the waters around Malapascua

We were initially worried that it may have done more harm than good and that the starfish, which will often spawn when threatened, would soon return in larger numbers.  However, as the weeks and months slipped by, Malapascua remained free of Crown of Thorns.

But now it is 6 years later, and the problem has returned to Malapascua.  So we have an on-going program to eradicate the crown of thorns using similar methods. They have not yet been cleared as well as they were back in 2005, but we are working on it!  Stay posted for more information.

Luwill, like many of the locals, has dreamed of becoming a PADI Divemaster for a long time. It is a much sought after job: as well as being very enjoyable work,  the Filipino DMs enjoy high prestige on the island, and make a very good salary.  This will help him support his wife and children.

A couple of months ago, Luwill very nervously approached us and asked to talk.  We were worried something was wrong, but it turned out something was right!  We were very happy to hear that he had an anonymous sponsor who wanted to pay for his diving courses through to Divemaster level!

As soon as we said this would not be a problem, his worried look turned to a big beaming smile and he has been bursting with excitement ever since!

So Luwill started his courses. Instructor Angus, has taken Luwill under his wing for his training and he has been doing splendidly so far.  In fact, he was so keen to learn to dive that he begged an old Open Water manual off an intern and before the deal had even been sealed he had completed it, mastering the hardest part, the RDP Table, with ease.

Angus and Luwill first met not long after Angus first arrived on Malapascua, on Angus’s first dive to Chocolate Island. He asked why it was called Chocolate, and Luwill replied, “The corals are sweet!!!” Luwill hadn’t even dived it at this point but the enthusiasm was clear!

So started the courses….

On his first Open Water confined session, a frogfish decided to join them, and its odd shape and gait quite flummoxed Luwill, but he went with the flow.  And on Open Water Dive 1, he managed to find a clouded moray eel – a sure sign of a laser-eyed spotter to come!

On Open Water Dive 2, a nice juvenile batfish showed up and he already had his buoyancy down; even better that the DMT assisting!

Rock star buoyancy!

He spent his third dive pointing out everything that tasted good (that’s a habit we will have to get him out of!) but he soon started spotting nudibranchs, which can be poisonous, so he presumably does not eat them!

And by his forth dive, he was a perfect, trim diver, wearing only 1kg of weight.

He has since completed Advanced and Rescue and finally started his PADI Divemaster course last week.

Angus's patented "Hover over my knife handle without smashing into it" skill on the Buoyancy Dive

Navigating a square on his PADI Advanced Nav Dive

Already learning about the fauna on his Naturalist Dive

We will be very sad to lose him as chief “Meeter and Greeter” when he quits his job next week to concentrate on his DM Internship full time, but he already has the makings of another great TSD DM!

But we will be back very soon.  For daily updates from TSD, check out facebook!

June

June was a surprise one. With quite a few maybe’s interested in our June IDC Special, but eventually no takers, we decided to cancel it.  Then the next day, who should walk through the door but out old friend Steve McGill.  After a mere 15 minutes catching up he asked, “So, do you have an IDC running anytime soon?”

So we geared back into action and our IDC was now running in full force.

Steve was lucky to have one-on-one attention from Course Director, Mike, and sailed through the IE. He is now living in Cebu planning to teach in Mactan.

L-R: PADI Instructor Examiner George Wegman, Steve, Mike (CD)

Mike had a few days off after he finished Steve’s Instructor Specialty ratings, but soon it was nose back to the grindstone as our two candidates for the July IDC arrived on July 9th.

July

Ronnie, from Germany, has just settled in El Nido in Palawan and is planning on opening a dive center in this newly discovered area.  He already owns the Habibi Shisha Restaurant which he runs with his lovely wife, Charo, so we are sure he will do well.

Katie comes from the UK and had just finished university. On the day she arrived, she got news of getting a first class degree, so double congratulations to her! Katie stayed with us for a month after the IDC to get some teaching experience and is taking the next year off to teach diving before going back to start her job in the UK. During her time with us she also worked on getting some of our staff certified as Open Water Divers. We offer this to our staff for free.

Also congratulations to Gareth our old instructor, who came back for a visit and completed his PADI IDC Staff Instructor Course. Sadly for us, Gareth has now returned to his fab job on the cruise ships in the Caribbean, but we hope to see him back in March next year.

L-R: George, Ronny, Katie, Mike

August

Yet again, no sooner had Ronnie and Katie finished their Instructor Specialty ratings, than Petr and Helen started their IDC Prep Course for the August IDC.

This is Petr’s third time with us. In ‘normal life’ he is a brain surgeon in the Czech Republic and has been coming to us every year for his vacation. In August 2008 he completed PADI Divemaster at TSD.  Last August he did his Assistant Instructor.  And this year he went all the way with the PADI Dive Instructor Course.

After completing the IDC, Helen did very well in the IE achieving mostly top grades and her PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor Rating.  Petr skipped the IE to travel to Bohol with his girlfriend who had been seriously neglected during the IDC, and will either come back in January or take it back home in freezing cold Prague – brrrr!

Helen is staying with us for another month for Specialties and some teaching experience on our MSDT Prep Program.

Congratulations to all our new PADI Instructors
and best of luck in your future careers!

Octopus

Ornate Ghost Pipefish

Flatworm

Pygmy Seahorse

Thresher Shark

Generous to a fault, on his last night, Hugh treated the crew, staff and their families to a night in Oscar’s Restaurant and a feast of lechon baboy – a whole spit roasted pig, the traditional celebration dish of the Philippines!

Lechon Baboy

Full Moon on Malapascua

If you have enjoyed these photos there are plenty more of his Malapascua trip and also many more from some of the spectacular locations Hugh has visited including Fiji, Wakatobi, Lembeh and Tonga for whales.

We hope to see Hugh back again at Christmas!

This year we were awarded finalist in two out of the five categories: the Project AWARE Conservation Award and the Outstanding Dive Center Business Award.

The Project AWARE award is one that we actually won last year, and we are very happy to have continued recognition of our conservation efforts. Currently we are focusing on adding to our artificial reef mostly thanks to Matt and Emma’s hard work over the last month.  More on that story coming soon!

We are especially pleased  and proud to receive the Outstanding Dive Center  Finalist award for the second year in a row. The award recognizes outstanding achievements across all areas of our operation. TSD always tries to maintain the high standards we have not let slip since opening, but we also continue to expand into new areas. In the last year alone we have…

• Introduced PADI IDCs and Instructor level courses to Malapascua
• Expanded our diving internship program to become one of the most successful in the Philippines
• Introduced the new PADI Tec Rec courses – another first for Malaspacua
• Continued to offer other diving destinations within the Philippines such as Donsol for whale shark watching and Tubbataha liveaboards, and also expanded our dive travel to include liveaboards in Thailand and Indonesia and the fabulous new M/Y Philippine Siren.
• Continued to provide top quality service in terms of PADI Dive Courses and the amazing local fun diving in Malapascua.
• Expanded our lines of dive equipment for sale, including becoming official Suunto dealers.

It is the most prestigious award granted by PADI and we were up against some very tough competition.  As a relatively new business compared to most of our competitors, it means an awful lot to us.

PADI regional manager, Jimmy Christrup visited Malapascua recently to formally present us with our awards.

L-R TSD Instructors and DMs: Holly, Riza, Justin, Dino, JN, Gibb, Mike, Andrea and Jimmy Christrup from PADI

Also this year we have been awarded the following:

Project Aware 2009 International Environmental Achievement Award

The International Environmental Achievement Award honors dive operators around the world who display commitment and excellence in their efforts to protect underwater environments within business operations and their community.

“The Environment Achievement Award is about rewarding vision, excellence and pursuit of conservation. More importantly, this award ensures the enjoyment of underwater environments for future generations.”

Go Eco Status

The main objective of Project AWARE’s Go ECO is for dive centres to minimize their impact on the aquatic ecosystem whilst contributing to environmental, economic and cultural conservation. Dive centres are required to meet best practice environmental guidelines and commit to the Project AWARE Go ECO philosophy.

Joanne Marston, Manager, of Project AWARE Asia Pacific added, “We are pleased to recognize Thresher Shark Divers as a Go ECO Operator. We look forward to working with them to implement environmental best practices and educate tourists about how they can travel responsibly.”

L-R: George Wegmann (PADI Instructor Examiner), Dustin, Mike (CD), Karlis, Henrik

This IDC was definitely a fun one as everyone knew each other very well. Dustin, Karlis and Soren are all long termers at TSD and Malapascua – at least 6 months each, and Henrik had been here for 2 months completing his DM.

The IDC flew by with our resident Course Director, Mike, at the helm. All too quickly they were off to beautiful Dumaguete for the PADI Instructor Exam where they achieved the much deserved qualification of PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor.

All 3 continued on to take PADI Specialty Instructor ratings, with Henrik doing no less than 13!  Joining them here and there along the way to add to their Specialty Instructor ratings, were already certified instructors Bernita, Holly, Justin, Matt and even our own Dino!

We wish them all the best of luck in their future careers, with Karlis heading off to his job in the Red Sea, Soren to Thailand, and Henrik off to finish diving the length and breadth of the Philippines before maybe trying to find work… Dustin will be staying with us at TSD to continue in his unofficial post as head nudibranch spotter and identifier whilst teaching and guiding in between.

The last two months on Monad Shoal have just been crazy, crazy, crazy, with big stuff absolutely everywhere. All our divers have been coming back every day with huge, beaming smiles and great photos.

To start with, there have been plenty of thresher sharks to go around. And the mantas are out in full force. Also devil rays are being seen in numbers I have never heard of before – up to 30 at a time.  Devil rays flying in squadron formation is truly a sight to behold, it almost feels like you are in Star Wars!

As an example, earlier this week there was an almost unheard of 6 thresher sharks circling at the same time. And as if that wasn’t enough, the lucky divers went back later that afternoon and saw 5 mantas.  Quite a day’s diving.

This almost beats Trevor’s all time world record from back in 2004.  He was doing a 75 minute nitrox dive with our old friend Alain and they had 7 sharks circling at once.

Peter Quinn was with us recently and managed to shoot these excellent video clips on just his basic point and shoot camera.

On a related note, probably the most popular question asked by divers coming to Malapascua Island is, “When is the best time for thresher sharks?”

Well, as threshers are wild animals, they don’t always come when they are supposed to, so it is tricky question to answer. But I will try my best:

Threshers can be seen year round and it is very rare to have a day when one is not seen on Monad Shoal. But there are times of the year when the general tendency is better and there are more sharks around.

Over my 7 years on Malapascua Island,  June to October have been the months when we see the most, whereas January and February are not so good. But having said that, January and February 2008 and 2009 were great for threshers and September 2008 was not. And this year, April and May have been just amazing.

So go figure…

What does this mean?

Book your holiday whenever is best for you and you are almost guaranteed to have some great shark sightings!  But it is a good idea to come for at least 4 days diving just in case, to make sure you get that special experience.

But for the inside scoop, my favorite month has always been September