Shark attack

A couple of days ago I arrived in Malapascua, a little island just north of Cebu Island. It's famous for the thresher shark cleaning station point at 30m depth just off the island. It's not at all like with the whale sharks were they are being feed to keep them there. But it is part of the thresher sharks daily behaviour to each day around sunrise head up from their normal 200m depth to the cleaning station where fishes clean them.

I stayed at a place called Thresher  Cove which is about 15 min walk from the "town" Logon. I paid 350P (62 SEK/€6.20) per night for a bed in an 8 bed dorm. They have a private beach, pool, restaurant and a dive shop on site. It's just a lovely little corner of the island with lots of nice people and relaxing atmosphere.

I signed up to do my Nitrox course with them and paid 10500P (1880 SEK/ €188) which included two dives, equipment and all environment fees. The first morning we headed off at 5.15am and went down. We managed to spot an eagle ray which was graciously swimming around us. And just before we were about to head up we saw a thresher shark but before I got a chance to take a picture it was gone. Luckily I had another dive the next morning where I hopefully would be able to snap a shot or two.

In the afternoon we headed to Gato island. We did two dives here. The first one was around the island where we hoped we could spot a white tip shark sleeping under some rocks. There was lots of dive boats around and the water was quite crowded which I didn't like, it took away all that I love about diving and felt like a busy tourist attraction instead of being in the big blue sea. Anyhow we got to a point where everyone was poking their heads under a rock and as it was my turn the first thing I saw was something yellow which I thought was the main attraction but then someone pointed a flashlight in there and holy smoke there it was: a white tip shark right in front if me!

Anyone fancy lobster?

After lunch itwas time for our second dive at Gato Island and it was without a doubt the best of the day. It was a cave dive so in we went with our flashlights and as we got to the opening there they were. Three white tip sharks. 

We stopped and took some photos as they were lying there and slowly started to swim around. As they started swimming we moved forward though one of them had gone beside us and then behind us. As everyone looked forward, I, that was in the back kept my flaslight behind me to make sure it didn't decide I looked like dinner.

The next morning it was time again to put the alarm for 5am for a second chance at the thresher sharks and what a morning!

 Photo by @ostermanmalin

We headed down and straight away there it was: a thresher shark! And then there were two.  Swimming around in front of us, allowing plenty of photos.

It was such a high and all four of us came up with big smiles and just couldn't shut up about how amazing it was!

Most dive companies leave about half an hour before Thresher Cove as the rumours that are going around is that you have to be there first thing to be able to spot any thresher sharks but clearly that is not the case. If you leave with all the other boats you risks ending up in rows of people.  As you are meant to kneel down at the station so you can observe them, a bit like being at the theatre. Anyhow, when we went there it was just us and because I had nitrox I ended up with just my instructer and the sharks.  So go whenever though the likelihood of seeing them are higher in the early morning. If that means leaving at 4.45am or 5.15am doesn't matter that much since the sharks don't keep the time.