The Monad Shoal at Malapascua

Malapascua wouldn’t have attained its much celebrated status today if not for Monad Shoal, some would say. Well, it is rather unfair for a ruggedly beautiful island which is only relegated to being in the shadow of the subterranean Monad Shoal.

Why is Monad Shoal so special both to divers and the science world? Monad Shoal doesn’t even appear in the map because it is not visible to the naked eye - except that the area is turquoise green amidst the blue expanse. Monad is a shoal. A shoal is a submerged sandbank creating a shallow area in the middle of the ocean which may pose hazards to ocean-going vessels. It is located east of Malapascua , the northernmost island of Cebu and 15 minutes away by boat from the island.

To some, especially to ordinary folks, Monad Shoal is a rather uninteresting seamount which rises out of the depths and has a sandy flat top at around 20 - 24 metres below the water surface. The 1.5 kilometer expanse of the top of the shoal is more like a desert if it were on land, almost devoid of marine life. The scant marine life in the top portion may be due to the strong current that flow over the area. The shoal top looks barren but why the fuss? Well, just because of one single creature. No, not a solitary trigger fish nor a lone lionfish.

The creature is big. Or rather, verg big. Maybe not as huge as a massive whale shark but it is nevertheless marvellous to behold. It is the thresher shark.

Monad Shoal is the only place in the world where sightings of these magnificent creatures can happen almost in daily basis. Although the shoal’s flat top portion is almost featureless, its walls that gradually slopes down to the deep is otherwise teeming with marine life, especially small reef fishes such as angel fish and wrasses. This is the very reason why thresher sharks come in regular basis.

Thresher sharks come here not to dine a la carte on a variety of palatable angel fish and colorful wrasses but to be pampered. Pampered? You might blurt in disbelief, but it’s true. Monad Shoal has become the cleaning station of these shy and solitary creatures of the deep. The shoal hosts a colony of wrasses and angel fish that are primarily scavengers in nature. Threshers get their service like royals of the deep.

The threshers usually come in the early morning while the sun is still slightly above the horizon. Their arrival is met with enthusiam by a number of wrasses and angel fish all too willing to offer their service gratis. They glide gracefully through the shallow reefs near the shoal edges where cleaner fish are abundant. The threshers obligely open their gaping mouth to let in the cleaner fish and do their job earnestly while the sharks try to keep their movement in check. The sight of the small fish darting in and out of the otherwise ferocious mouth of these giants is amazing to behold.

Threshers are pelagic fish and they live primarily in open waters mostly at 500 meters deep. Scientists and divers alike are baffled in this strange behaviour. Do they come here solely for hygienic purposes or something else? Interestingly enough, other sharks and even other threshers don’t exhibit the same behaviour in other places of the world. But one thing is certain though, they love Monad Shoal.

As soon as the job is done, the threshers simply glide into the blue yonder and fade away never to be seen again until the next morning.