Malapascua Dive Site point information

Monad Shoal / Thresher Shark Point  30m

Monad Shoal is an underwater island on the edge of a 200m drop off, and is famous as the only place in the world where Thresher Shark can be seen everyday at the cleaning stations found on top of the reef.Depending on the season you may also encounter Giant manta rays are a common sight year round and the shoal attracts other pelagics such as devil rays and eagle rays.

Gato Island   25m

Gato Island is a marine reserve and sea snake sanctuary. You can to find whitetip sharks sleeping under rocks. At all sites you can see such things as banded sea snakes,harlequin ghost pipe fish,cuttlefish ,pygmy seahorses, nudibranches, frogfish, scorpion fish, porcupine fish, smashing mantis shrimp and an endless amount of other macro surprises.

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 Cat sharks. The coral is in good condition.

Calanggaman Island   30m

Calanggaman Island is the picture postcard desert island.Vis is usually good and fish life is plentiful. Look for pelagics out in the blue including sharks, rays, tuna and barracuda, or unusual fish like clown triggers on the wall. 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.

Often we will stop on the island for a beach barbeque during our surface interval and overnight stays can also be arranged.

Lighthouse  7〜12m

The mandarinfish is possibly the most beautiful fish in the world, and there are few places in the world where they can be seen. Malapascua is one of them. And Sunset dive you will see mating mandarinfish in their full glory!

In the late afternoon we dive Lighthouse, where the rare and psychedelic mandarinfish are guaranteed. Do not miss the exotic mating dance of the male and his adoring females.

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. We regularly see seahorses, scribbled and banded pipefish, juvenile sweetlips, banded sea snakes, huge crabs and sea stars, many varieties of shrimp and occasional frogfish. As day turns into night you should start to catch some interesting nudibranchs and a variety of cephalopods - reef squid, bobtail squid, starry night octopus, the occasional blue-ringed octopus and cuttlefish.

Deep Rock　25m

Beautiful soft coral and varied marine life including frogfish of different colors, fire urchin hikers specially frogfish and nudibranchs. Great macro.An amazing hangove could easily keep you busy for the whole dive.

One rock is home to a large carpet anemone. The anemonefish that live on it often have a patch of their orange eggs to guard and get quite aggressive if you get too close! If you can brave the nemos, look below for porcelain crabs, banded boxer shrimp and lionfish.

Lapus Lapus　25m

Lapus Lapus Island has some of the most spectacular coral growth we have ever seen. There is a huge variety of soft and hard coral, much of it in pristine condition. Other marine life includes giant frogfish, painted frogfish, smashing mantis shrimp, various sweetlips, cuttlefish and lionfish. There are many nudis, several varieties of commensal shrimp and also porcelain crabs. A great macro site and at the end of the dive you come to 8 meters onto a seemingly endless beautiful soft coral garden.

Deep Slope　25m

This is a great muck dive - some divers have told us that Malapascua is even better than Lembeh!.Where you can find all kinds of unusual creatures. There are goby and shrimp living together in holes everywhere and the tiny rocks often house small mantis shrimp. You will often see fire urchins, zebra crabs, candy crabs, dwarf lionfish, cuttlefish, seamoths, crabs, snake eels, frogfish, nudibranchs and snowflake moray eels.

Japanese Wreck   5m

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 include yellow-tailed barracuda, hermit crabs, octopus, pipefish, juvenile harlequin sweetlips, and banded sea snakes

Chocolate Island  22m

Chocolate Island is a beautiful shallow dive site and a macro photographer’s delight. The healthy soft coral is home to a large variety of life: sea snakes, snake eels, moray eels, cuttlefish, seamoths, large crabs and juvenile batfish. Macro includes nudibranchs, flatworms, shrimp, shells and cowries. Flatworms are common and if you are lucky you will see them performing their jaw-droppingly beautiful shimmery mating ritual!

Kimud Shoal / Hammerhead Shark Point  40m

Kimud Shoal is a sunken island. Its main attraction is the school of up to 200 hammerheads, which can usually be seen regularly between December and May, and occasionally through the rest of the year.Hammerheads are more often seen in ones and twos but around April is the best time to catch them in full schooling glory. Kimud is near to Monad Shoal and in the same trench so we often see thresher sharks, mantas and devil rays. Turtles are occasional visitors. Kimud Shoal has a lot of hard coral, and many excellent hiding spots for moray eels and frogfish. and any point on the island there is the chance of seeing other pelagics such as sharks, rays and tuna. Dolphins are also in the area!