Malapascua got most of his fame from the thresher sharks. There are only a few places in the world where you can dive with the thresher shark and Malapascua is the best.
\nThe name derive from the Greek word alopex, meaning fox. The long-tailed thresher shark, Alopias vulpinus, is named the fox shark by some. The common name is derived from a distinctive thresher-like tail or caudal fin which can be as long as the body of the shark itself.<\/p>\n
It studies with tagging it was proven that the thresher shark usually spends most of the night in shallow water and descents in the morning to the depth around 200-500 meters and stays there most of the day. Thresher sharks are primarily pelagic; they prefer the open ocean,venturing no deeper than 500 meters. Common threshers are more common
\nin coastal waters over continental shelves.<\/p>\n
Named for and easily recognized by their exceptionally long caudal fin, thresher sharks are active predators; to stun prey they actually use their tail. By far the largest of the three species is the Common thresher, which may reach a length of 6 meters and a weight of over 450 kilograms. The Big eye thresher is next in size, reaching a length of 4.9m and at just 3m, the Pelagic thresher. In Malapascua all three kinds were seen.<\/p>\n
Their favorite food is bluefish, juvenile tuna, mackerel, squid, and cuttlefish. Sea Explorers starts in the early morning around 4-5 am when we go out to wait at the cleaning stations to dive with the sharks. In Malapascua around 70-80 % all year around you can see the thresher sharks.<\/p>\n
Other pelagic animals like manta rays and mobulas come and enjoy a cleaning session in monad shoal.<\/p>\n
In October 24, 2011 we found new cleaning stations in Monad shoal and sightings have been 100% since October. Every single morning we saw the sharks usually between 1-8 sharks a dive.<\/p>\n
We hope it will continue longer than that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"