Diving Guide to the Philippines 2015

(Barry) #1

Malapascua’s Threshers


T


he thresher shark cleaning
stations at Monad Shoal have
become world famous. First seen by
Malapascua fishermen, early
pioneer divers worked the shoal to
find out if they could be seen and it
turned out threshers have cleaning
stations on the sea mount. By now,
the behavior has been carefully
observed. This is about the only
place in the world where they
appear with any predictability and
scientists have come to study them
here on more than one occasion.
Threshers are a wary shark. Divers
should not get in their way. They are
not seen schooling here but are
usually solitary. They sometimes
circle the cleaning station in twos
and threes, but they arrive and leave


separately.
Thresher sharks grow to a
maximum of 12 ft. (3.3m). With
their long, sweeping tails and
bulbous bodies, threshers are easy
to differentiate from other species.
Their tails may make up 50 percent
of their body. Not generally
regarded as a threat to man, divers
should not get too close as it could
interrupt their cleaning behavior
and they just swim away.
Threshers, as with other members
of the mackerel shark family, give
birth to live pups, usually between
two and four at a time. The sharks
have also been observed leaping
from the sea. They use their tails to
swim through shoals and stun prey,
returning to eat the victims.
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