What started out as a really brutal wake up call ended up being one of the best diving experiences of all time. Bold statement, for sure. But truer words have never been spoken, at least for us.
Despite the ambitiousness of the Edges of Earth Expedition, we are frankly relatively new to the diving scene. There are professionals and experts who have been involved for years, decades, lifetimes. We aren’t there yet, but we sure are trying to put some good effort into the sport (and hastily, might I add). In theory, more time in the water equates to more marine encounters. But in practice, so much of this depends on your dive location and the people that you are with.
You can’t just Google “what's the best dive ever?” and expect to find an excellent answer. Reddit or ChatGPT also won’t offer you all too much insight into undiscovered diving gems. Research can get you some of the way there for sure. But beyond that, you have to get immersed in the scene, meet incredible people who have done this way longer than you have and seek recommendations directly from the pros. From our experience, that’s usually where most of the magic happens.
Our first stop on the expedition had us on a liveaboard in South Australia, out to sea for 10 days with many scuba diving legends. We made some friends from the Philippines who had a big hand in carving out niche diving scenes in the country. The Philippines was going to be one of our longest stops in 2023 on expedition, with a ton of impact work to explore.
In an effort to compare notes, we asked for some advice on the best teams to meet up with that specialize in both dive mastery and ocean conservation. That’s when we were put onto the Evolution dive team in Malapascua.
This location is well known for some of the best diving in the Philippines, as it’s one of the only places in the world where you can see the epic thresher shark all year round. And it was a universal understanding that Evolution was the best when it came to navigating the waters of Malapascua.
Like many other epic dive zones— Malapascua takes a bit of planning and effort to get to. After flying into the second largest city in the Philippines, Cebu, you then drive 3-4 hours up the coast. Arriving at a small mainland harbor in the north, you’ll then take a 30-45 minute boat crossing over to Malapascua Island, where you set up base in hopes of seeing threshers in the flesh.
The dry season, which runs December - April, is the best time of year if you want to increase your chances. We, however, chose to arrive in August to see what off-season had in store. Navigating these waters requires a deep sense of coordination and understanding, especially during the peak.
One of the reasons why we decided to explore during off-season was to ensure that we could actually learn about the conservation practices that are allowing the thresher sharks to exist in healthy numbers all year round. The less boats in the water, the more we could explore.
Upon arrival on the Evolution base, we were introduced to our divemaster, Josh, who was positioned with us for the full expedition leg. Starting out as Evolution’s security guard, Josh has worked his way up the ranks to guide. We’ve had countless guides, translators, navigators, and fixers throughout the expedition and even well before. But nobody has quite been on Josh’s level. From his pre-dive briefings to his emphasis on safety measures to his overall abilities in the water—this local legend was not just good, he was exceptional.
When you have someone with this type of skill and expertise working with you, the only thing you want to do is level up. Water and dive mastery takes years and extreme attention to detail. Josh had it down.
To see some of the most exciting marine action, you oftentimes have to put yourself in situations that wouldn’t be commonly classified as favorable. This includes ridiculous early mornings, traversing around open ocean looking for “the perfect spot,” donning the heavy dive gear and the overly tight wetsuits (especially when cold water diving) and of course, what it takes to get to the more remote places in the world. But, we do it in hopes we can have the experience, learn more and find ways to give back.
As divers, we all know that marine encounters can be extremely challenging to predict, no matter how favorable conditions are. You can say that there are threshers here year round, but that doesn’t provide any guarantees of encountering them on any given day. Taking the plunge with Josh at the helm, we knew that we had to keep our expectations at bay. The purpose of our first dive was to get our bearings. The next dives were to dial in and keep an eye open for the shy threshers.
Epic clearwater had us looking around in every direction, wondering when our time would come. After close to 25 minutes cruising, I noticed the seafloor subtly moving. Diving down to get a closer look, there were “starry sky” octopi hovering just out of their respective caves, moving around the seafloor freely. Personally, I’d never seen so much octopi action in this way. It was as if they were signaling something big was about to happen.
Hovering with the octopi, watching their otherworldly bodies move and change color, I realize that I’m now alone. Usually Marla is right by my side or in my line of sight, but at the time I couldn’t see her or Josh in my immediate view. That’s when I realized my dive buddies were a layer higher, as we were suddenly surrounded by 5-6 threshers. Slowly ascending, very apprehensive to leave the wildly active octopi, I rejoined my team staring in awe of these sleek looking creatures.
The threshers were circling us slowly, with their oversized eyes looking right back into ours, or perhaps even deeper into our souls. It was one of those moments in time that can’t be recreated. When you have that many threshers circling you closer and closer, in calm waters with zero impediments to visibility, any pre-existing thoughts or hesitations about getting up at 430am are quickly forgotten.
All the less glamorous sides of travel, all the exhaustion of carting of gear, all the time spent assembling and checking equipment completely dissolve in moments like this. It’s that special and worth every ounce of energy.
Fixated on the threshers, and occasionally looking down to see the squirming octopi, I found myself yet again, alone at the scene. Assuming the pattern was repeating itself, I look up to see they’ve ascended another layer higher to view what seemed like a large black cloud overhead. A couple of double takes later, and the realization set in that we had not one, but two whale sharks circling at the 5 meter (16 feet) mark.
Signaling like crazy, everyone was tweaking! This was completely unprecedented as far as recent history goes. Josh, who had been diving these waters for a good decade and is from mainland Cebu, had not once come across a whale shark, let alone two.
Here’s the deal with whale sharks in the Philippines. Cebu, in particular the southern area of Oslob, is notorious for whale shark encounters of a different, unnatural kind. There are operators that feed the sharks and let tourists RIDE them as well. The Philippines have gotten a ton of heat for these insanely poor practices.
These types of human activities are both altering the natural behaviors of the whale sharks, leading them to associate boats and humans with food, which potentially puts them at risk. It can affect their migratory patterns, their diet and increase the risk of boat strikes.
Today was a day unlike any other in Malapascua and we were stoked to be there for it. Coming to the surface, we all were going nuts—especially Josh. Seeing your local guide that amped means this really was something truly spectacular. That much unexpected action on a single dive made it one of the best ever, and one that will certainly go down in history. But the next question was, could it happen again?
The next few dives were dedicated to the conservation work we were meant to be doing while on site. This included assessing the environment for the invasive “Crown of Thorns” starfish (COTS) that eat away at coral that make up the thresher’s habitat. However, we couldn’t help but look around in every direction for another chance of crazy marine encounters.
As luck would have it, it wasn’t the last time we saw the octopi on the ground floor, nor the threshers in the center and even the whale sharks at the surface. Day after day, we continued to experience the most epic dives of our lives. The whale sharks seemed to arrive and exit the same time we did. The day of our departure was the first day that Evolution had not come across whale sharks, making us wonder what we did to be so fortunate.
Perhaps it wasn’t just pure luck. When long-term conservation efforts are put in place, with collaboration across fields and industries, you can see meaningful change in the ocean. Species return to former habitats, as there’s food sources available once more, and population growth can happen. Regeneration is entirely possible, as earth has proven time and time again. And teams like Evolution have been putting in the hard yards to help give these things a fighting chance—from training divers to do better in the water to running conservation efforts that directly focus on maintaining thresher habitats.
Not every dive is going to be an adventure of a lifetime. But when you do get one (or many) like we did, you hold on to these memories with all of your might. We dive because we like to explore. We explore because we are curious. And we are curious because we want to better understand this place we are so fortunate to call home.
Diving enables you to keep that curiosity alive for a long time, as it’s a lifetime sport. It takes you to some of the most alien places in the world, to meet some of the most exceptional people. It allows you to witness things that others may never see.
Diving pushes your limits, tests your capabilities and drives you to keep learning about yourself and the natural world. As divers, we have to remember that this is a privilege, and with that privilege we must give back to the sea that has given us so much.
To be continued …
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