What Scuba Diving Malapascua ACTUALLY Looks Like

In September 2026, I did 6 dives over 4 days on Malapascua with Devocean Divers.

Malapascua is a small island off the northern tip of Cebu, and it's known as one of the best places in the world to see pelagic thresher sharks.

Some divers make the mistake of only diving with the threshers when they come here. Gato Island is worth the trip on its own.

I'll cover all three sites I dove here, along with dive computer data from my Garmin Descent MK3i, then who to dive with, where to stay, and how to get here.

Best Time to Dive Malapascua

Devocean Divers run the thresher dive as an early boat trip out of Malapascua from September through May.

I went in September, during the low season, and there were still several groups in the water at Kimud Shoal at the same time. I can't imagine what high season looks like.

Best Overall Dive: Kimud Shoal

At Kimud Shoal, it's pretty much the only place in the world where you're guaranteed to dive with multiple thresher sharks if you go at the right hour.

According to local guides, the threshers used to be at Monad Shoal, but a tiger shark frequently passes through the area, and ever since then Kimud is where the threshers hang out.

A small tender leaves from Malapascua and takes you to the main dive boat. There's a downline you can follow, because there can be current here.

Once you're down it you're on the shoal, a sunken island with a flat top, and that's where the threshers make their laps. The reef here is actually pretty decent, but almost nobody looks at it, because most of the dive is spent at the edge of the drop-off watching for threshers coming in to the cleaning stations.

They came in circles around us with those long tails flailing through the water behind them. Their awkward eyes were really cool to look at.

This was one of the most unique dives I've done in my life.

We were up at 5:30 in the morning for this one. No lights and no strobes are allowed at this site, so between that, the early start, and limited sun, the lighting for photography is tricky.

It's also only one dive site, and it's a very popular one, so expect a lot of divers.

Best Macro Dive: Gato Island

Gato Island is known for its resident whitetip reef sharks, its underwater tunnel, and rich marine life. I dove the site three times on this trip.

It's a boat ride out from Malapascua, and the island itself is a lump of limestone cliff with a cave mouth cut into one side.

The diving wraps around the rock, and most of what's worth seeing sits in the overhangs and on the rubble at the base rather than out in the open. Going three times helped, because the small stuff is what this site is really carrying and you don't find it on one pass.

The cave is closed. The story I was told on the island is that it has been closed to divers since an earthquake. A magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit offshore of northern Cebu on 30 September 2025, with the epicenter around 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Bogo City.

I can't confirm that the closure traces to that specific quake, and no dive shop I can find has published a notice about it either way. So I didn't go through it, and I can't tell you what's in there.

Most Famous Dive: Monad Shoal

Monad Shoal is an underwater plateau sitting offshore from Malapascua. It's the reason most divers come to this island at all, because it's known as one of the best places in the world to see pelagic thresher sharks.

I didn't see any.

The top of the shoal is flat and sandy, with coral heads sitting on it in patches rather than a continuous reef. At 45 ft (13.7 m), this is a shallow dive by the standards of the site's reputation.

There were plenty of whitetip reef sharks, some sleeping and others swimming through the area. That's the thing worth knowing about Monad if you're going for the threshers and they don't show. The sharks are still there, just not the ones on the poster.

The story I was told locally is that a tiger shark started frequenting the area, and since then the threshers have mostly moved over to Kimud Shoal. I have no way of confirming that. It's just what I heard.

Then I met some friends at the island ferry terminal who had video of that tiger shark at Monad from a few days before.

Dive Operators in Malapascua

I did all 6 dives with Devocean Divers, based on Bounty Beach.

For the thresher dive, a small tender takes you out from the beach to the main dive boat.

Diving Conditions & What to Wear

The water was 84°F (29°C) on every dive.

Visibility was 60 ft (18 m) at Kimud Shoal and Monad Shoal, and 70 ft (21 m) at Gato Island. There can be current at Kimud, which is what the downline is for.

I didn't wear a wetsuit. The water was warm.

Where to Stay in Malapascua

I stayed at Hippocampus Resort. It was okay.

3 to 4 days on Malapascua is perfect.

Getting to Malapascua

First you need to get from Cebu City's North bus terminal to Maya Port, on the northern tip of Cebu.

You can either take the public bus, which is probably around 200 pesos, or a shuttle bus. I took the shuttle and paid 400 pesos. The price depends on how many people are in it, and they need a certain minimum number of passengers to run the trip.

When you arrive at Maya Port, you pay a 5 peso marina fee, then the ferry ticket itself, and then an eco fee.

The bigger issue is on the way back.

The ferry needs a certain minimum number of passengers to make the trip happen. They claim it runs from 8 am to 5 pm, but if they don't hit that minimum, you wait another 30 minutes for the trip to go.

They also don't charge locals, so it's entirely up to the foreigners to come up with the money, even if locals are on the boat trip with you.

According to Devocean Divers, the public outrigger boats at Maya wait to fill up with passengers, and on average leave every half hour. If there are no more boats running, a special trip costs ₱1,000 to 2,000. Porters charge ₱20 per bag they carry.