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MALAPASCUA BEST DIVING SPOTS

If diving is your reason to visit Malapascua you’ll be spoiled for choice. More than 20 dive sites around the island make of Malapascua a diver’s paradise, for amateurs and professionals alike. A marine life sanctuary waiting to surprise you!

The diving in Malapascua Island is amazing, from white tip sharks in Gato Island, to Thresher Sharks in Monad Shoal, to Hammerheads in Kimud Shoal or the Mandarine spawning at the lighthouse you won’t have time to get bored. If you’re in Malapascua for a short stay we recommend to plan your dive trips in advance in order to adapt them to your preferences and diving level. If you never dived before Malapascua is a great place for getting your padi license, you’ll get hook to the underwater world!

Apart form the bigger species mentioned above Malapascua is home to the most amazing small creatures of the seas like the Mandarine Fish, dozens of species of nudibranch, harlequin shrimps, pygmy seahorses and lots more. If you are into macro underwater photography you’ll feel in heaven diving in Malapascua Island. All this great diving together with a couple of amazing wrecks which shouldn’t be missed either, and day trips like Kalangamman Island or Capitancillo is why Malapascua Island should be on every diver’s bucket list.

Below you’ll find our Top Ten list together with the highlights to be seen on each of them.

Monad Shoal

Boat Ride: 25 min

Experience: AOW or higher

Depth: 20 – 28m

Monad Shoal is a sunken coral plateau and probably the most famous diving spot in Malapascua Island because of the Thresher Shark. This is the only spot in the world where they can be seen every day!

This encounter is a must-have experience in Malapascua so be sure not to miss it. Your day will start at around 5am at your dive shop and after a 25-30 min boat ride you’ll arrive to Monad Shoal. These sharks live in deep waters but can be found at this cleaning station at dawn getting rid of the parasites on their skins.

Regular Marine life at Monad Shoal: Manta Rays, Mobulas, Barracudas, Lion Fish, Batfish, Cuttlefish, Mantis Shrimp, Moray Eel, Nudibranch, Octopus, Pufferfish, Pygmy Seahorse, Scorpion Fish, Stone Fish.

Kemod Shoal

Boat Ride: 45 min

Experience: AOW or higher

Depth: 30m, (max allowed 40m)

Being a smaller plateau than Monad Shoal, Kimud Shoal offers, apart from a big chance of seeing the thresher shark, the possibility of seeing Hammerhead sharks and devil rays too!. You will have to wake up even earlier than for Monad Shoal since the travel time is a bit longer, but you won’t regret it a bit!

The depth varies from 12 mtr to a 200m+ meter drop and this dive is recommended for AOW or higher divers.

The best time for a dive in Kemod Shoal is between February and June, thow Hammerheads are better spotted btween Decemberand April, normally they are seen alone or in twos, but if you happen to be here around April, chances are big you will get to see them in big groups!. Regularly yellow fin tuna, barracudas and unicorn fish can be seen at this spot too.

Deep Rock

Boat Ride : 10 min

Experience : OW

Depth : 16 – 26m

Deep rock is an underwater pinneacle which starts at 16 mtr and slopes down to 26m. It is very convenient located just a 10 min boat ride away. This spot is pone of the highlights of Malpascua and therefore recommended to every diver visiting the island, the rock is covered with beautiful corals in all colours possible and the marine life diversity is amazing. you will find more than 10 species of nudibranch species, harlequin sweetlips, juvenile batfish, giant and clown frogfish, seahorses , robust ghost pipefish and many type of crabs between many more!

Lapus Lapus

Boat Ride: 10 min

Experience: OW

Depth : 8 – 20m

At the northwest side of Malapascua and just a 10 min boat ride away you can find Lapus Lapus. This spot is probably the most spectacular around Malapascua when it comes to corals. There is a great variety of both soft and hard corals. In between you can find scorpionfish, giant and painted frogfish, cuttlefish, lionfish, pygmy seahorse and many types of shrimps and crabs among others!. For those into underwater photography this is the place in Malpascua for your macro shots.

Lighthouse

Boat Ride: 10 min

Experience : OW

Dedpth: 8 – 11m

The star of the show here is the mandarin fish, this fish is quite rare and Malapascua is one of the few places in the world where they can be seen regularly. Not only that, in Malapascua you’ll get the chance to seeing them mating, which is a beautiful choreography not to be missed!

These spot is perfect for night dives, you should see some amazing marine life, starry night and blue-ringed octopus, seahorse, bobtail squid, banded pipefish, sea snakes, etc. the list is endless! Must night dive in Malapascua.

Kalanggaman Island:

Boat Ride: 75 – 90 min

Experience: OW

Depth: 3 – 40m

You’ve probably seen This pinturesque desert island on many postcards and Instagram posts. Visiting the island itself makes for a great day trip but it will be even better if you combine it with one or two dives!

The marine life is plentiful here and visibility is great. It is a greta spot for snorkelling or just swimming too. If you get to dove you will enjoy a beautiful wall dive with amazing corals. Plenty species of nudibranchs are to be found here together with a long list of other species including pelagics like rays, barracudas and every now and then even the thresher shark. You’ll also spot pygmy seahorses, eels, white mushroom coral pipefish as well as many different types of crabs.

Nunez Shoal

Boat Ride: 90 – 120 min

Experience: OW

Depth: 6 – 25m

You may want to combine oyur kalangamamn trip with a dive at thisn amazing wall, starting at 15m there is a 1km drop. This makes for a dive which can include a lot of unexpected encounters like the blue-ringed octopus together with different kind of pelagics, being sharks and eagle rays very common.

Gato island

Boat Ride: 45 min

Experience: OW

Depth : 5 – 27m

This dive spot will be one of your best memories from Malapascua. Gato island is a marine life sanctuary and one of the best dives in the Visayas sea. There are more than 5 dive sites at this small island being the tunnel the most beautiful one. This is a passage entering via the northeast side and exiting on the west side. White tip sharks are almost guaranteed to be spotted during this crossing. Other marine life includes an amazing variety of sea snakes, bamboo sharks, cat sharks, nudibranchs, pygmy seahorses, cuttle fish, big mouth mackerel, scorpion fish, porcupine fish, among others.

Doña Marilyn wreck

Boat Ride: 70 min

Experience: AOW

Depth: 16 – 32m

This diving spot gets the name from a ferry victim of typhoon Ruby in 1988 where a lot of people lost their lives. The wreck sits at a depth of around 32 m and is around 100mtr long. It surprisingly remains in one piece and is actually covered with many old fishing nets and corals which gives it quite a sinister look.

A big variety of marine life can be found here, such as Stingrays, scorpion fish, colemani shrimp, frogfish, nudibranch, white tip reef sharks marble ray, eagle ray, and much much more.

Tapilon wreck

Boat Ride: 40 min

Experience: AOW

Depth: 24 – 32m

Located around 40 minutes by boat from Malapascua the wreck, or rather wreckage, of the Tapilon makes for a great dive. This WWII Japanese cargo vessel is very broken up and lies mainly in 3 main sections.

Spread over the seabed between 24 and 32 metres depth and covering up to 75 square metres she is home to a myriad of sea life. Huge soft corals reach out from her twisted steel plates towards the surface above. Small yellow seahorses seek refuge amongst the coral and large stonefish camouflage themselves against metal girders.