티스토리 뷰
by Shinseong Kim (105571244)
Seneca Polytechnic
COM101NCV: Communicating Across Contexts
Professor Victoria Yeoman
November 17, 2024
I like The Unfortunate Christmas
What do you think of when you read the words 'Unfortunate Christmas'? Maybe you imagine a cold and snowy day with a poor little match girl. Or maybe you think of the Grinch or Mr.Scrooge. But for me, it brings back good memories of a tiny island in the Philippines. Its name is Malapascua, which means Unfortunate Christmas.
In the Philippines, Christmas is a huge, important celebration that everyone waits for all year. But, why is this island called like that? The story goes back to the 1500s. Around the year 1520, Spanish explorers were sailing through the Philippines. Their ship crashed on this island because of a storm, and it happened to be Christmas Day. They named the island Mala Pascua(Bad Christmas) in Spanish. Later, this name changed in Filipino(or Bisaya) to 'Malas sa Pasko', which also means Unfortunate Christmas. Then, it became Malapascua (Love The Philippines, n.d.).
I traveled around the Philippines for four months in 2016 and 2023, visiting so many places. If I had to pick one, this small and lovely island is the one I remember the most. Because of that, I often share my stories about Malapascua with the people around me. However, I regret a little bit that I knew nothing about the island before visiting, so I couldn’t fully enjoy everything it had to offer. That’s why I’ve decided to write about this, to share some fun facts and useful tips for anyone planning a trip to the Philippines or currently traveling there, and for myself as well when I visit again. Since There’s so much to talk about, so I plan to split the story into two parts to show the special charming points of Malapascua.
Malapascua Island is about 5 to 6 hours away from Cebu city by local transportation. You can also take small plane or private transport to get there, but I always prefer local travel even if it takes longer. Because it allows me to meet more local people and have more fun!
This tiny island has a population of just around 3,000 people (Love The Philippines, n.d.). In fact, there were no cars on the island when I visited. People only rode motorcycles to get around. In my perspective, the island has three main advantages. Firstly, thresher sharks. Secondly, it’s not very well-known, so it’s not too commercialized and not crowded with tourists, even though it’s so much beautiful. And lastly, you can see the best sunsets ever. In this first post, I will talk about the thresher sharks. This is important because thresher sharks are a big reason people visit and falling in love with Malapascua. Knowing about them before you go makes big difference.
Get to know the thresher shark
Malapascua island may not be well-known to most people, but scuba divers especially those who love sharks have probably heard of it. This is because it’s one of the few places in the world where you can see thresher sharks very close. It’s known as one of the best places to do this (Bates C, 2021). When you think of diving with sharks, you might imagine scary activities like watching great white sharks from inside a iron cage. But diving with thresher sharks is not like that. It was a very calm and relaxing scuba diving experience.
Thresher sharks are pretty huge predator. They are 2.6 to 7.6 meters long (Jordan, n.d.) and are one of the few warm-blooded sharks, unlike most fish (Wei, 2020). This means they can keep their body temperature 5 to 14 degrees higher than the surrounding water, which helps them trip long distances and dive to deep water. (Abby, 2015) So that they can even live at depths of 550 meters (Jordan, n.d.). Sadly, their numbers have dropped by 70% to 99% in the world since the 1980s (Pew, 2014). In 2018, the thresher sharks were added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as an endangered species (Pacoureau et al., 2018).
Thresher sharks are extremely shy creatures. They have small mouths and weak jaws, so they are not a threat to humans. There are no reported cases or records of thresher sharks attacking humans even in recent times! (Wormald, 2024). They mainly eat small fish like anchovies and sardines, and even squid (Seitz, n.d.). Their appearance is also very cute. It's the first time I’ve seen such a cute shark ever. When we watch them, the sharks also watch us. But unlike other sharks, their eyes are big and you can see the whites of their eyes.
Because of that, it seems like they are looking at you sideways almost as if they are being cautious or shy. But the charm doesn’t stop there. They have a long and beautiful tail fin that you can't find in other sharks. Their tail is the longest of any shark and makes up almost 50% of their total length (Gallant, 2023). However, their tail is not just for show. It’s a key part of their unique hunting style. Most sharks chase and attack their prey directly. If thresher sharks used this style of hunting for small fish like anchovies, they would waste too much energy. Instead, they use their tail like a whip to hunt in a smart, strategic way. This is why they are called thresher sharks.
The Unique Hunting Strategy of Thresher Sharks
Dr. Simon P. Oliver, a Marine Ecology & Conservation expert, and his team studied the attacks of 16 thresher sharks from June to October 2010. They observed the sharks near Pescador Island where is close to the sardine shoals in Moalboal, Philippines. The results were very interesting. The sharks used two main attack types. The first was to swing their tail over their head, and the second was to swing it sideways. (Oliver et al., 2013)
The attack had four steps. ‘Preparation,’ ‘Strike,’ ‘Wind-down recovery,’ and ‘Prey item collection.’ In the preparation phase, the shark speeds toward the sardines, which takes about 1.01 second (Oliver et al., 2013). The strike phase happens when the shark swings its tail like a whip, which takes about 0.4 seconds (Oliver et al., 2013). The wind-down recovery phase is when the shark looks for the stunned sardines, rotating 180 degrees, and it takes about 0.5 seconds. In total, the attack happens very quickly, in about 1.91 seconds (Oliver et al., 2013).
The shark’s tail reached an average speed of 21.82 m/s during the strike. The success rate of the attack was 30%, but the shark was able to stun and eat about 3.6 sardines on average. The best result was 7 sardines stunned at once, showing that thresher sharks have a very effective hunting strategy (Oliver et al., 2013).
Clean Station - Monad Shoal
Despite usually living at depths of up to 700 meters, how can such rare and endangered sharks be seen in just 15 to 20 meters of water near Malapascua? The answer is Monad Shoal, an underwater mountain located just 30 minutes from the island. This area has a special marine ecosystem that makes it possible for thresher sharks to stay here (Oliver et al., 2011). I also went scuba diving there. Monad Shoal acts like a 'Cleaning Station,' where sharks can get cleaned, like a car wash station (Important Shark Ray Areas, 2024).
Dr. Oliver also studied how thresher sharks and cleaner wrasses interact at here. The sharks swim in circles and the cleaner fish follow them to eat parasites from their bodies. This cleaning process is most active in the early morning when the cleaner fish are hungriest. In the video I filmed, you can see the sharks being cleaned, just as described. (Oliver et al., 2011)
Tips
Here is what I learned about thresher sharks. If you are planning to visit Malapascua, I recommend getting at least the basic Open Water scuba diving certification before you go. It is also a good idea to bring a camera, like a GoPro with a protector that can film underwater. This will let you dive to 15 or 20 meters and capture the amazing moments. Besides thresher sharks, many other interesting creatures live there. If you're lucky, you might even see other sharks, giant manta rays, or whale sharks. But the beauty of Malapascua Island isn’t just underwater. Even though it is a tourist spot, it is not overdeveloped and still feels untouched. And also the best sunset I’ve ever seen in my life was here.
Look forward to the next part!
References
Abby. (2015, April 10). Endotherm. Fishionary. https://fishionary.fisheries.org/endotherm/
Bates, C. (2021, July 4). 5 best Thresher Shark Destinations. Mikes Dive Store. https://www.mikesdivestore.com/blogs/mikes-london-dive-store-blog/5-best-thresher-shark-destinations
Erichsen, G. (2020, February 28). Learn the many meanings of ‘Pascua.’ ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/the-many-meanings-of-pascua-3079203
Jan Acosta (2010, August 24). Overhead tail-slap with preparation, strike, wind down recovery and prey item collection phases [Video]. Thresher Sharks Use Tail-Slaps as a Hunting Strategy. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0067380.s001/ , s002, s003, s004
Jordan, V. (n.d.). Alopias vulpinus. Discover Fishes. https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fish/species-profiles/alopias-vulpinus/
Love The Philippines. (n.d.). Explore more things to love! https://philippines.travel/activities/malapascua-island
Note. From thresher shark's tail-slap from a sequence of video still images [Photograph], by The Thresher Shark Research and Conservation Project, 2013, Images from Thresher sharks use Tail-Slaps as a hunting strategy . (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0067380&type=printable) p.4 Copyright 2013 by Oliver, S. P., Turner, J. R., Gann, K., Silvosa, M., & Jackson, T. D.
Note. From harvesting the grain the traditional way - threshing the grain [Photograph], by Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:De_Pikkeling_-_harvesting_the_grain_the_traditional_way_-_threshing_the_grain_-_Meldert%289%29_-_2018.jpg) Copyright by Herman vandenbroeck Creative Commons license
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Oliver, S. P., Hussey, N. E., Turner, J. R., & Beckett, A. J. (2011). Oceanic sharks clean at coastal Seamount. PLoS
ONE, 6(3), e14755. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0014755
Oliver, S. P., Turner, J. R., Gann, K., Silvosa, M., & Jackson, T. D. (2013). Thresher sharks use Tail-Slaps as a hunting strategy. PLoS ONE, 8(7), e67380. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0067380
Pacoureau, N., Sherley, R., Liu, K., De Pesquisa E Conservação Da Biodiversidade Marinha Do Sudeste E Sul, R. B.,Fernando, D., Romanov, E., Carlson, J., & Elasmo, R. J. (2018, November 6). IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: Alopias pelagicus. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/161597/68607857
Pew (2014 July). Disappearing silky and thresher sharks. The Pew Charitable Trusts. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/fact-sheets/2014/08/disappearing-silky-and-thresher-sharks
Seitz, J. C. (n.d.). Alopias pelagicus. Discover Fishes. https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fish/species-profiles/alopias-pelagicus/
Wei, S. (2020, April 8). Creature feature – Get to know the Thresher Shark. Dive Ninja Expeditions. https://www.diveninjaexpeditions.com/creature-feature-thresher-shark/
Wormald, S. (2024, November 13). Dive with thresher sharks in Malapascua, Philippines. - PADI Blog – Latest Scuba Diving News, Events, Blogs, Articles & More. https://blog.padi.com/dive-with-thresher-sharks-in-the-philippines/
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