Thresher Shark Diving Malapascua
Last month we hopped on a flight from Bali over to the Philippines for thresher shark diving Malapascua island. This tiny island off the northern coast of Cebu is home to one of the most elusive shark species, the大眼睛上层脱粒鲨。
Hundreds of divers flock to a single dive site each morning for a chance to spot these elegant creatures. As the sun begins to rise, scuba divers roll the dice on their chances to check a thresher shark encounter off their bucket list, descending to the top Monad shoal.
Why Monad?
在Monad Shoal的顶部是一个清洁站，既有蓝色的清洁工wrasse and Moon Wrasse。早晨，脱粒机鲨鱼是通过清洁劳动摘下皮肤的小寄生虫。
一夜之间，小鱼正在睡觉，所以鲨鱼在鱼起来醒来并有空的肚子，准备梳理寄生虫时出现。[Simon Pierce]。
But here is the problem, or the price of being popular.
鲨鱼之所以来，是因为较干净的鱼，洁净的鱼类生活在细腻的珊瑚内，还有数百名潜水员牢记一个目标……好吧，珊瑚远非繁荣。负责任的潜水中心指导他们的潜水员，以远离礁石，并在线后面，但是一旦发现了脱粒机，兴奋就开始了，珊瑚就被踢了。
It’s easy to see where coral rubble has turned to sandy rubble, right in line with divers fins.
用过和滥用
在过去的五年中，在马拉帕斯卡岛（Malapascua Island）周围的旅游业呈指数增长。这里的整个潜水行业都围绕着大多数潜水商店围绕着徽标或名称中的标志性脱粒机图像而基于Thresher Shark潜水。
在高峰季中，每天早上载有15多种潜水员的20艘船可以在Monad Shoal上体面。我们不禁将这种经历与拉斯维加斯的赌博进行比较。将比索扔在柜台上，然后掷骰子，您可能会幸运，并获得惊人的相遇，或者对10秒钟的脱粒机感到满意。
But in the end, is all of this tourism worth it?
Malapascua的行业基于这一一次潜水。但是，由于鲨鱼的受欢迎程度，它们的脆弱栖息地日复一日地被滥用。
Coral in Malapascua
I spoke to many divers before arriving in Malapascua and they all told me the same thing. The corals were destroyed, nothing left. So I wasn’t expecting much from the coral in Malapascua. Yet, once I arrived, I was overwhelmed with the number of corals in Monad shoal. This dive site must have been a true paradise some 10-20 years ago.
虽然上面的图片看起来并不多，但由于我们在潜水过程中无法使用灯光，但在这一块岩石上，我数量超过30种硬珊瑚物种……30……这很大。
All around Monad, a few body lengths behind the lineup of divers I was amazed at the diversity of corals. I found many unique species and hundreds of baby corals pointing to the health and connectivity of this ecosystem.
Despite this discovery, you didn’t have to look far to find evidence of divers. Nearly every coral colony had some broken branches. This brokenPocillopora一定不会被打破几天以上。
这不是一个容易破裂的珊瑚。这不是一个错误的鳍踢，它会损坏更精致的分支珊瑚（如上图所示），这很容易成为膝盖，肘部和有力的踢。
很容易看到水肺潜水员对这个生态系统产生的影响，因为有一条线显示潜水员的去向和没有的地方。尽管这是朝着正确的方向迈出的一步，将潜水员保持在一条线后面，但与珊瑚礁的山礁上的珊瑚峰边缘相比，珊瑚礁冠上的薄缘很小。
关闭礁石？
Should Monad be closed to tourism? What would happen?
There is little hope this dive site will be closed. As we mentioned earlier the entire dive industry of Malapascua is based around this one attraction thresher shark diving. However, we can look at an interesting case study of Manta Point.
在Monad Shoal的另一侧是第二个潜水地点，称为Manta Point。几年前，Manta Point已关闭潜水员两年，所有珊瑚开始回来。礁石被分支的Acropora覆盖，充满了鱼类的生命。一旦开放该网站，所有珊瑚就不会花费几个星期的时间。
Now we don’t think that divers set out intentionally to break corals, but being underwater is disorienting and the excitement of seeing a shark takes over. Then, it doesn’t take much to knock a coral back six months or longer.
单细胞生物浅滩是充满有趣的珊瑚f you know where to look. We believe by educating divers about coral diversity they will pay closer attention to the delicate habitats underneath them.
如果您要在Monad Shoal中潜水，请确保选择不允许跪在礁石上的负责任的潜水操作员。选择中性浮力徘徊。
我们和Dive4Help Malapascua
