Malapascua and Cabilao 2012

I visited Malapascua and Cabilao in the Visayas in January. Malapscua primarily in order to see the threshers, and Cabilao for nice macro. I was very positively surprised by the númber and quality of macro subjects in Malapascua. On just one dive I saw eight to ten Zebra crabs and on the same dive two fire urchins just beside each other had a pair of Coleman´s in them. Here are some pictures. First from Malapascua:

Zebra crab with eggs

Coleman´s shrimp

Fire urchin squat lobster

And some from Cabilao:

Goby with parasites

Candy crab

Giant anglerfish

More pictures from the trip are uploaded on http://www.pbase.com/borneobent/philippines_2012

Comments are of course most welcome!

Great Macros!

Excellent shots, nice colours!

Very nice!! Who did you dive with in Malapascua?

WOW! Really nice shots! Thanks for posting them.

Doug

Nice shots! I was in Cabilao in December too, however, your pics are much better than mine! Thank you for sharing.

Very nice!! Who did you dive with in Malapascua?

Thanks for the comments. I dove with Sea Explorers, which was very good, with good boats, good planning and with very good airfills. My guide in Malapascua was Vic, and he was excellent. One of the best guides I ever had. He really knew the sites and worked hard to find the subjects.

Beautiful super-macro images!!!!!

Very nice! Did you get some shots of the Threshers? How was that part of the trip?

Very nice! Did you get some shots of the Threshers? How was that part of the trip?

I had only 4 mornings where it was possible to go the Monad shoal for the threshers. However, each of those mornings was absolutely glorious. We had threshers every day and often several swimming in circles pretty close to us, being cleaned by cleaner wrasses. The photography part of the shark dives was less than optimal. First it was very early, so it was dark. Second, it was overcast, so the sun didn´t help much. Third, it is quite deep, and fourth, the visibility below 15 meters was not particularly good, with a brownish tone to the water as well. However, that said, the sharks were absolutely stunning, and there is no doubt that I will do those dives again as soon as I get back to the Philippines. It is such an amazing sight to see one of these big sharks slowly circling just at the drop off and being cleaned by a swarm of wrasses.

Here are a couple of pics just to give you an idea. Both of the sharks were at least three meters, and I would guess that the first was around fourish:

Those pics are amazing, you are lucky how close they got to you. I only saw them from a distance and was not allowed to take my camera as I was doing a course, however that does not matter they were too far anyway!!!

yep the only shots i got of the threshers were with my Fisheye and they were to far and look to small in the frame...

what lens did you use?

yep the only shots i got of the threshers were with my Fisheye and they were to far and look to small in the frame...

 

what lens did you use?

I used the Tokina 10-17 with an 1,4 extender and a Zen dome.

I had an amazing pass the last dive I did. Or at least what was turning into an amazing pass. I was at the edge of the diver line, and a big thresher was coming closer and closer for every turn. However, just as I was starting to be sure that this is it!!, into my viewfinder came a compact camera attached to a long arm of a diver that crept into the field of view and scared away the thresher. I was quite annoyed at the time, but at least it gives me a good reason to go back, which is fine by me. I´ll probably give it at least a week at Monad next time, and try to time it with some clearer water.

Cheers Bent

Very nice. I have heard its a great experience there but that it is not always possible to get out there and that the sharks being there is not always very reliable.

Very nice. I have heard its a great experience there but that it is not always possible to get out there and that the sharks being there is not always very reliable.

I guess that it sometimes could be to rough, Monad shoal is pretty exposed. As I understand it the threshers are now seen at a new spot, with a very high hit rate. When I was there, threshers had been seen every day at least a week before our arrival. The dive shop talked about an 80% sighting chance, but what that covers is of course not really clear.

That is great news! What operator did you use out there?

I did Monad 5 times and saw two Threshers...it would seem like one of the issues the more responsible operators had was that not all operators respected the off limits areas denoted by a ropes. The were easily spooked, especially seeing that divers arrive at from 4.30 am, the sharks would just not pitch up. A friend did his instructor's course at Malapascua recently and they also went to the new spot however they approached the cleaning stations from deep side of the wall and peeked over the edge of the plato where the cleaning stations were...apparently they had really good sightings...

That is great news! What operator did you use out there?

Sea Explorers.

Thanks Bent i only had my 10.5 and i needed a little more length but that is now taken care of with my shiny10-17 and gears so i hope when i go again around easter i will get better trhesher shots.

Cheers!!