Diving Monad Shoal in Malapascua, Philippines

In September of 2026, I dove Monad Shoal with Devocean Divers, by boat out of Malapascua Island, Philippines.

Monad Shoal is an underwater plateau sitting offshore from Malapascua, in Cebu province.

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 Dive

This is a boat dive, and the plateau is a short ride off the island.

The top of the shoal is flat and sandy, with coral heads sitting on it in patches rather than a continuous reef.

I logged 45 ft (13.7 m) at the deepest point across 47 minutes, so 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.

I also dove Kimud Shoal on this trip, and the reef there was more alive than what I saw here.

The Thresher Situation

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.

The guides were clear that the tiger shark itself is a low chance sighting, because it passes through rather than living there.

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

If you've dove Monad recently and seen threshers, tell me. I'd like to know whether what I got was normal now or just a bad morning.

What Marine Life I Saw

The plateau reads as sand first and coral second, so most of what's here is holding tight to the patches.

The Dive & Conditions

Visibility on my dive was 60 ft (18 m), and the water was 84°F (28.9°C).

Devocean Divers run this as a boat dive out of Malapascua.

The site is worth diving from September through May.