Malapascua Island

Malapascua Island, northern end

Malapascua Island, southern end

Malapascua Island is a Filipino island situated in the Visayan Sea, located across a shallow strait from the northernmost tip of Cebu Island. Administratively, it is part of the insular barangay of Logon, Daanbantayan Municipality, Cebu Province, the Philippines. Malapascua is a tiny island, only about 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) long and 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) wide, and has eight hamlets.

As a diving destination, Malapascua was "discovered" fairly recently, only in the early 90s. The island was first known for its wide white sand beach, known as Bounty Beach; it has also become known for its beautiful coral gardens 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 be sighted on a regular basis.

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

There are no licensed physicians present on the island, with the closest hospital situated several hours away.^{[citation needed]}

The name “Malapascua” is said to have been given by some Spaniards whose ship happened to get stranded in the island on Christmas Day, December 25, 1520, due to bad weather. Because of their misfortune of having to spend Christmas away from their comrades and family stuck in a desolate island, the Spaniards called the island Mala Pascua, which literally means “Bad Easter”. From then on the Spaniards and the non-locals would refer to the island as Malapascua, while the local residents insist that their place is called Logon.^{[citation needed]}

Religiously, Malapascua Island or barangay Logon is believed to be the place where the Virgin delos Desamparados made a miracle sometime in 1890 when the island said to have only nine households of the Monteclar, Deogrades, Rosales, Gulfan, Rubio, Bohol and Bruces families. It was said to be a piece of wood that had never burnt. In 1907, the parish priest of Kandaya, now Daanbantayan town, Rev. Fr. Inocentes Maga, baptized it of its name upon the request of the local residents. The size of the image is not the original size and it is said to be growing until present. Devotees from different parts of the country and even abroad are coming during the feast on May 11 and 12 of every year. The chapel was originally made of coconut palm and leaves but at present, it is made of steel and cement because of donations of the devotees for the church’s improvement.

Economically, during the early period, natives of the island were dependent on fishing as a source of livelihood. Agricultural products such as corn and rice were supplied from Leyte which is close to the island. As time has changed the lives of the people and the discovery of the natural beauty and attraction, development gradually changed the living condition. Fishing is not so abundance as before prompting the people to shift to another business for tourism industry. Malapascua is still blessed to have the famous Thresher Sharks in the Monad Shoal, only in the world that gives so much attraction to foreign tourists. The people attributed the intercession of the Virgin of saving the people from scarcity of fish catch among fishermen to commercialization of the place due to the influx of tourists that give alternative livelihood among the residents and boost their income.

Monad Shoal

Perhaps the most popular SCUBA diving destination near Malapascua is Monad Shoal, a natural cleaning station for fish located about 20 minutes from the island. The shoal is a rather unremarkable 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) long rock stump at the edge of a 200 metres (660 ft) drop and has a flattish top at a depth of around 20 to 24 metres (66 to 79 ft). There is little in the way of coral on the top of the seamount which is swept by a strong current.

The site is best known as the only place in the world where thresher sharks can be seen regularly before sunrise. They use the seamount as a cleaning station for wrasse to remove parasites from their skin and clean their gills and mouths. The shoal also attracts other pelagics such as devil rays and eagle rays. Manta rays and hammerheads are seasonal. Monad Shoal is suitable for Nitrox. Because of the depth, it is recommended only for advanced SCUBA divers.

External links

• Malapascua travel guide from Wikitravel
• Official municipal website