Since opening in 2004, TSD has been at the forefront of conservation efforts on Malapascua, and of course thresher sharks are a big part of that. One fo the first things TSD’s owner, Andrea, did after opening was propose a list of rules for diving with the thresher sharks. This was both to aid in responsible diving, as well as ensuring they sharks were not bothered or harassed by divers. We are pleased to say that these rules were accepted by the other dive centers, are still in place today and generally very well followed.

For several years now, there has been a marine patrol in place, that regularly patrols Monad Shoal for fishermen. Even during Covid, the closed dive shops put together a schedule and rotated their dive boats to go out every day.

We are please and proud to say that shark numbers on Malapascua have never been better. If you came to Malapascua in the “early days,” you were lucky to get a single good sighting of one shark. Now it’s not unusual to see 10 or more on one dive! Such a great thing for any shark lover to hear in this world of declining shark numbers worldwide!