A Must-Dive Philippine Thresher Shark Destination & Dive Fiesta 2017

The Editor was invited by the Philippine Department of Tourism to attend Dive Fiesta Philippines 2017 in Manila, and "conveniently" slipped into the home of the Thresher Shark — Malapascua Island, affectionately nicknamed "Mama's Loofah Island" — hoping that through this first-hand visit, we could share with everyone how seriously the Philippine government and its people take dive travel, an tourism industry that has long been overlooked by Taiwan's own government.

A trip can be broken down into food, accommodation, transportation, and entertainment. For easy browsing, we'll share everything in chronological order — if you'd like to skip straight to the Thresher Sharks, just scroll down fast!

Pre-Trip Planning for the Thresher Shark Dive Destination

Dive Fiesta Philippines 2017 set up a highly professional website that allowed Philippine businesses to register as Sellers and international teams to register as Buyers. Everything from registration and dive shop matchmaking (B2B appointments) to post-event itineraries was handled through the site. Both visually and in terms of completeness, it was clear that the Philippine authorities took this event very seriously. In addition, the team at the Philippine Tourism Promotion Board's Taiwan office provided meticulous reminders and careful arrangements, making the entire pre-trip planning process extremely smooth.

Website: https://www.divefiesta.com.ph/

Outbound Transportation & Visa

The Editor was initially quite anxious about having to apply for a Philippine e-visa — little did I know that the colleagues at the Philippine Tourism Promotion Board's Taiwan office had already taken care of our short-stay visas (9a) and flight arrangements. For general travellers, the Philippines now uses an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) system; Taiwanese visitors can apply through the Manila Economic and Cultural Office's official website at www.meco.org.tw. For a step-by-step guide on how to apply, here's a handy reference link (Tutorial Link).

If it's your first time transiting through Manila airport, you're probably just as worried about getting lost as the Editor was — here's what we learned. Manila airport is divided into three terminals, and the distances between them are considerable, so be sure to confirm with your hotel which terminal you're arriving at before arranging accommodation transfers. This time we flew Philippine Airlines to Manila first, attended Dive Fiesta, and then took a Philippine Airlines domestic flight to Cebu. If you choose an airline with a direct flight to Cebu, this part won't apply to you.

Airlines with direct flights to Cebu in 2017: Cebu Pacific, EVA Air.

Here's a handy tip for flying Philippine Airlines: when the Editor first boarded, there was no personal TV screen, which made me think it was a budget airline. A fellow traveller kindly pointed out that you need to download a dedicated app (myPAL) and then connect to the onboard Wi-Fi after takeoff to access on-demand entertainment. If you forget to download it beforehand, there'll be no internet once you're in the air — so don't forget! (This time around, the Editor noticed that movie subtitles were only available in Japanese; I fell asleep before figuring out the right settings, so hopefully there'll be a chance to sort that out and share the solution next time.)

After collecting your luggage, you can file out through the terminal doors. Both US dollars and Philippine pesos are accepted in the Philippines, but using pesos is more convenient — you can exchange currency right beside the exit. On the left side you'll find telecom company SIM card stands; the SIM cards are now offered for free and you simply choose a data plan that suits the length of your stay. Do note, however, that on some islands the mobile signal can be quite poor!

Dive Fiesta Philippines 2017

The Dive Fiesta schedule kicked off bright and early. The chosen venue was the Nobu Hotel, and the event floor was magnificent. The tourism board also arranged a traditional Philippine welcome dance, which gave us a real sense of Filipino warmth and hospitality.

After brief opening remarks from officials, Dive Fiesta moved into its main attraction: 29 industry operators were lined up to meet with us, each given 15 minutes, and everyone pulled out all the stops to extract the very best information from each dive shop. The B2B matchmaking session ran from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. In addition to some dive destinations familiar to Taiwanese travellers, there were also a number of resorts and itineraries that are less well-known. Among the operators at this session, the Editor found two dive shops particularly compelling.

El Rio y Mar Resort — Dugong Diving in Coron:

El Rio y Mar is Spanish for "the river and the sea," which aptly describes its location at the intersection of a river and the ocean. Situated in northern Coron, the visibility here is generally better than at the more commonly visited southern Coron sites, and the star attraction is the dugong! Apparently, this resort serves as a Philippine dugong research station, which suggests that the chances of encountering a dugong are very high. In addition to dugongs, from December through May each year, there are opportunities to spot manta rays at Tara Island, a 2.5-hour journey from the resort.

This resort is located in northern Coron, about 1.5 hours from the airport, nestled in a secluded bay. For those looking for a quiet getaway with access to resort amenities including sailing, stand-up paddleboarding, spa treatments, and hiking, this would be an excellent choice.

Website: El Rio y Mar

Ticao Island — Wild Whale Shark Encounters:

Ticao Island is an emerging dive destination located on a small island in central Philippines. Getting there requires a connecting flight to Legazpi airport, then overland transport to Donsol, and finally a boat to the resort on Ticao Island. The journey is undeniably long, but according to the dive shop, the chances of spotting a wild Whale Shark here are as high as 98.9% (ha!). For Taiwanese divers accustomed to seeing fed Whale Sharks, this could be a refreshing alternative. In certain seasons, manta rays can also be spotted. Beyond water activities, the resort can arrange horseback riding and ATV exploration. The remote setting makes it particularly suited to divers who want a pure, relaxing getaway. Best of all, since the resort is still in its promotional phase, a four-day, three-night package is currently priced at just 17,000 PHP — including full equipment rental — which the Editor found extremely enticing.

In Donsol, Whale Sharks are viewed by snorkeling, but at Ticao Island you can get up close with scuba diving. According to the operator, visibility is around 15m, though it can drop in poor sea conditions. The Whale Shark sites also tend to have currents, so dives are conducted as drift diving — a certain level of diving experience is recommended before visiting.

Website: Donsol ECO Tour

On to Malapascua!

Malapascua is located at the northern tip of Cebu in the central Philippines. From Manila, it's about an hour and a half by plane to Cebu, followed by roughly a 4-hour drive to Maya, and then another 30 minutes by Banka boat to reach Malapascua Island. It's undeniably exhausting for travellers — but for a chance to see the beloved Thresher Shark, it's absolutely worth it!

We also flew Philippine Airlines to Cebu for this leg — since it's a domestic flight, divers should pay close attention to baggage weight restrictions. Reportedly, Philippine Airlines will soon offer a promotional scheme where passengers booking an international segment into Manila and then connecting to domestic destinations in the Philippines can enjoy a 30 kg baggage allowance on domestic legs — keep an eye on the Philippine Airlines website for the latest details.

After about a 4-hour shuttle ride, we arrived at Maya port on the northern tip of Cebu. Don't let the word "port" conjure images of a bustling harbour — at the moment, it's little more than a seawall without even a public toilet, though there appears to be construction underway nearby, so hopefully the next visit will bring a brand-new Maya port. Here we boarded a Banka, the iconic local watercraft — a type of outrigger boat — with the dive shop adjusting the size based on the number of passengers and their needs. After 30 minutes bobbing across the waves, we arrived at Malapascua!

Our hosts for this visit were Sea Explorers, one of the largest and most established dive shops on the island, with four locations across the Philippines — full details are available on their website. One can't help but admire how well-organised international dive operations are: from luggage handling and dive shop orientation, to document signing, collecting weights, packing gear into designated boxes, and the nitrox sign-off procedure — everything followed a set process. Even the grouping system showed thoughtful design: divers marked their name tags to indicate nitrox, and the shop then assigned groups based on ability, with a maximum of four divers per dive guide. Taiwan's dive shops could certainly learn a thing or two from this level of professionalism.

Diving Itinerary

The undisputed highlight of Malapascua is the Thresher Shark, but getting up close with one is no easy feat. You must drag yourself out of bed at 4 a.m., be on the boat by 5 a.m., and ride 30 minutes out to Monad Shoal — all to catch Thresher Sharks in the act of visiting the shallows at dawn for their cleaning station routine. Thankfully, diving in Southeast Asia comes with exceptional service: simply place your gear in a box with your name on it, and the staff will assemble your regulator and scuba tank, carry it all to the boat, and take care of everything else. After each dive, you climb back aboard to eat and share stories. At the end of the final dive day, the crew will even wash and hang dry your equipment. Truly a 100-out-of-100 service experience!

According to our dive guide, Monad Shoal was discovered by fishermen 20 years ago when they noticed Thresher Sharks gathering here every morning to have cleaner fish remove parasites and debris from their bodies. Divers from around the world began flocking here for the Thresher Sharks, and the island's dive shops and related businesses gradually flourished. Local residents came to understand the value of the Thresher Sharks, and fishing is no longer conducted in the area. Monad Shoal itself is vast — even larger than Malapascua Island — and some dive shops offer underwater scooter (DPV) tours of the shoal, with a Divemaster (DM) leading you to discover a different side of Monad Shoal. For more information, check out Devocean Divers Malapascua.

When observing the Thresher Sharks, always follow your dive guide's instructions. You may kneel along the guide rope and wait patiently for the sharks to appear — do not hover mid-water or chase after them, as this may startle and drive them away. Some waiting areas are at greater depths, so keep a close eye on your dive computer's no-decompression limit (NDL); if you're approaching 10 minutes remaining, let your DM know and move to a shallower position. When watching the Thresher Sharks, absolutely no camera strobes or video lights — the concern is that excessive artificial light will spook these rare visitors.

Beyond the Thresher Sharks at Monad Shoal, many other sites around Malapascua are also excellent for photography. On this trip we headed to Cato Island, a 45-minute boat ride from Malapascua. The Editor was thoroughly impressed by this charming little round island — both its coral coverage and biodiversity were genuinely stunning. With little to no current and shallow depths, it's also a great option for beginners.

"Cato" means "cat" in Spanish, though the Editor couldn't quite imagine how any cat would end up on such a tiny island. There is a natural sea cave running right through the centre of the island — it takes about 5 minutes to swim through, and the cavern is spacious enough that as long as you don't stir up the sediment, it's perfectly safe. For photographers, the Editor highly recommends going in first: during the day, sharks can often be found resting inside the cave, and with sunlight filtering in from outside and sharks drifting through the beams, it makes for a spectacular shot.

Beyond these two highly recommended sites, the dive spots around Malapascua are also well worth exploring. For example, a night dive at Lighthouse offers the rare spectacle of mandarin fish mating. The northern Deep Slope site is teeming with macro subjects — underwater photographers, switch to macro mode and start filling up those memory cards. Most sites around the island have little current and shallow depths, making them equally suitable for beginners.

We spent one day visiting several dive shops around the island. Most of the dive resorts on the southern beach side are run by foreigners, and their facilities and equipment are generally in great shape. However, none of the dive resorts we visited had Mandarin-speaking divemasters. For now, if you're not confident in your English, it may be worth coming as part of a group to avoid any communication issues during dive briefings.

Each dive shop has its own packages and style, so you can mix and match to suit your preferences. Some shops even offer island-hopping dive services — you could dive in Cebu today, then sail to Malapascua to stay overnight, and after diving there, continue to another island. This eliminates the hassle of bus transfers and Banka connections, and is a great alternative to consider. In addition to the beach-front shops on the southern side, there are also several locally owned and operated dive shops inland, making for around 12 dive shops in total across the island.

Dive shops visited:

• Devocean Divers
• Thresher Shark Divers
• Blue Heaven Malapascua
• Fun & Sun Malapascua

Island Activities

Malapascua has a population of around 3,000, and beyond the more commercial southern beach area, the rest of the island retains a genuinely local, unhurried feel. If time allows, it's well worth wandering around. The inland areas are a bit rustic, but the locals are incredibly warm and welcoming, and you'll find street food stalls and BBQ vendors — definitely worth a try. One must-buy souvenir from Malapascua is a hand-carved Thresher Shark wooden figurine; vendors sell them on the beach, but this time we followed a seasoned travel expert into a small carving workshop tucked away in the back alleys. It turns out that all the Thresher Shark carvings on the island come from this one craftsman — you can choose the style, wood grain, and glaze colour, and he'll carve it right in front of you on the spot. Incredibly cool, and priced at just 250 PHP per piece.

On a whim, we rented motorbikes from the locals for a proper local trip, heading to the pristine white beach on the north side and the Lapus Lapus Cliff in the northwest corner — both spots are absolutely breathtaking and virtually impossible to reach without a motorbike. The bikes here are all manual transmission, and the uneven roads make riding feel like an off-road adventure — thrilling, but do mind your safety. Along the way, locals treated us to a cockfight and a peculiar local gambling game, offering a fascinating glimpse into everyday life on the island. Motorbike rental was 200 PHP per hour, with a guide fee of 100 PHP.

Throughout the experience, it was easy to notice that the living standards of many locals are relatively modest. In that context, the discovery of the Thresher Sharks was nothing short of a gift from the heavens for Malapascua. With around 12 dive shops on the island, most of them — beyond their management staff — hire local residents as divemasters. Add to that the restaurants, hotels (spa and housekeeping), luggage porters, and boat crew whose livelihoods are supported by dive tourism, and it becomes clear how profoundly the island's economy is sustained by diving.

The richness of the underwater ecosystem attracts divers from all over the world, giving rise to a vertical and horizontal industry chain that allows the island to develop in a healthy, self-sustaining cycle. Young people abound on the island — the Editor chatted with a motorbike guide who turned out to be a 29-year-old local who had once left home to find work elsewhere, but returned after his family opened a spa business. For Taiwan, which is currently trying to revitalise its fishing villages, the Philippines may just hold the answers we've been looking for.

Return Journey

The return trip meant switching back into long-haul commute mode. We again flew Philippine Airlines to Manila, staying one extra night before heading back to Taiwan. Cebu airport is relatively small, but it is divided into a south wing and a north wing, separated by airline and by domestic versus international routes. Since the airport is compact, if you accidentally go to the wrong wing, doubling back is actually quite quick (ha!).

Reflections & Conclusions

The Philippines is an archipelago of over 7,000 islands, and against a backdrop of generally sluggish economic conditions nationwide, dive travel plays a significant role. The strong support of government agencies — from hosting Dive Fiesta to participating in international dive expos around the world — demonstrates the Philippine government's commitment to the dive industry. The enormous commercial opportunities brought by divers have transformed the livelihoods of local communities, who come to understand how vital the marine environment is to their own wellbeing. The revenue from diving far outstrips what fishing alone could bring, so reduced fishing and environmental damage leads to a healthier underwater ecosystem, which draws more visitors, improves local living standards, and sets a virtuous cycle in motion.

By comparison, Taiwan's government faces far more constraints in promoting the dive industry and transforming fishing villages. Various policies struggle to be implemented, and public sector resources remain poorly integrated — a real shame. Hopefully, with the establishment of a dedicated Ocean Affairs Council or Ministry of Oceans, Taiwan will begin to place greater emphasis on developing the economic potential of marine tourism.