WhenToDive
Shark · 🦈

Pelagic Thresher Shark

Alopias pelagicus

Thresher sharks are pelagic predators that use their elongated upper tail lobe — as long as the rest of the body — to stun schooling fish. For recreational divers, the site is Monad Shoal off Malapascua in the central Philippines, where threshers visit a cleaning station at around thirty metres every morning at first light. Nowhere else in the world offers the reliability of the Monad Shoal encounter. Dives are dawn starts, early bottom time, strict no-flash photography policies to protect the cleaning station behaviour.

Thresher sharks are pelagic predators that use their elongated upper tail lobe — as long as the rest of the body — to stun schooling fish. For recreational divers, the site is Monad Shoal off Malapascua in the central Philippines, where threshers visit a cleaning station at around thirty metres every morning at first light. Nowhere else in the world offers the reliability of the Monad Shoal encounter. Dives are dawn starts, early bottom time, strict no-flash photography policies to protect the cleaning station behaviour.

The year at a glance

Global aggregated reliability — at any given month, how reliably can you find this species somewhere in the world?

Score 1–5 · global aggregated reliability Rare Moderate Reliable

Where to see them in April

Sorted by April reliability and species status.

  1. 01

    Malapascua

    Philippines · southeast asia · peak
    5/5

Full season breakdown

Peak Present Rare

Destination
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Notes
Malapascua
Pre-dawn dives at Monad Shoal cleaning station, reliable year-round
Fuvahmulah
Rare / occasional
Red Sea — Brothers, Daedalus & Elphinstone
Rare / occasional