Malapascua Island, Philippines

Malapascua Island is a Philippine island situated in the Visayan Sea, 6.8 kilometres (4.2 mi) across a shallow strait from the northernmost tip of Cebu Island. Administratively, it is part of the insular barangay of Logon, Daanbantayan, Cebu. Malapascua is a small island, 1 kilometre (1.55 by 0.62 mi), and has eight hamlets.


Sunset on Bounty Beach-

Malapascua became famous fairly recently, only in the early 1990s as a dive destination. Prior to this, the island was known for its wide white sand beach, known as Bounty Beach, it is known for its beautiful coral gardens, coral walls and excellent local dive spots, as well as further-out sites including Gato Island, Monad Shoal, and Kemod Shoal. Monad Shoal is an underwater plateau where thresher sharks and manta rays can regularly be sighted.

Most of the islanders derive their livelihood from tourism, while some still rely on subsistence fishing and farming.

Similar to other islands, natives were dependent on fishing as a source of livelihood. Agricultural products such as corn and rice were supplied from neighboring islands, such as Cebu and Leyte.
With the population increasing and fish stocks dwindling, tourism came to the rescue.

Nowadays, the majority of islanders either directly or indirectly make a living out of tourism, which is developing rapidly. The growth of tourism has also increased local immigration to the island, thus the demand for housing. The lack of a pier for bigger boats - due to financial constraints - is keeping a brake on construction growth.

The number-one dive site of Malapascua is Monad Shoal, a natural cleaning station for fish located 7.8 kilometres .The site is best known as the only place in the world where thresher sharks can be seen regularly at and just before sunrise. They use the seamount as a cleaning station for bluestreak and moon cleaner wrasse to remove ectoparasites such as gnathiids from their skin and clean their gills and mouths.