Cebu Thresher Shark Night Dive — Malapascua

Malapascua is the only place on earth where you can reliably see thresher sharks nearly every single morning, and this trip puts you in the water at the famous cleaning stations to witness it. Threshers are deep-water sharks with enormous eyes and a scythe-like tail almost as long as their body. They are extremely light-sensitive, so they rise from depths of 200 metres or more before dawn to visit shallow cleaning stations around 25 to 30 metres deep, where small wrasse pick parasites from their skin.

To catch them you make a pre-dawn descent, with boats typically leaving the island before sunrise. You drop onto the seamount, settle behind the cleaning-station line and wait in the blue half-light as the elegant sharks glide in, one after another. It is one of the most magical and otherworldly dive experiences in Asia. Patient groups are often rewarded with multiple sightings, and occasionally mantas, mobula rays and reef sharks appear at the same stations.

This is an early-morning deep dive that requires an Advanced Open Water certification (or equivalent) and comfort at around 30 metres. Beyond the threshers, Malapascua also offers superb macro diving, mandarin-fish dusk dives and additional shark and reef sites, making it a bucket-list destination for serious divers.