Malapascua Island: Dives 7-10 - Deep Rock, Gato Island, and Monad Shoal

One of the three Pygmy Seahorses we found at Deep Rock. Unfortunately the little bastard wouldn't look at me. Photo: Ryan Pearson

By Ryan Pearson

This morning we did our last dive at Malapascua Island (for this trip at least). It was a great dive at Monad Shoal at dawn and we had a thresher shark with us up close for about the first 35 minutes. After that we spotted about 4 more sharks and a gigantic bed of garden eels. In all a great way to finish the trip. Yesterday we did two dives at Gato Island, and the day before we had one dive at Deep Rock. Gato and Deep rock are competing for my two favourite sites that we dived as they are both bursting with interesting critters, white-tip sharks, cuttlefish, and sea snakes. I found myself constantly thinking 'What the hell is that?' Here are the pics I got from the dives. 

Unfortunately I have a large scratch on my macro port with causes most of the close shots to turn out a bit 'foggy' in the bright areas. Poo.

A Lizard Fish at Deep Rock.

An amazingly striking shrimp at Deep Rock. Unfortunately this photo doesn't do it justice.

Another striking crustacean at Deep Rock.

Octopus at Deep Rock.

Two yellow Pygmy Seahorses at Deep Rock. Can you spot the 2nd one? I didn't see him until I was reviewing this photo after the dive.

A frog fish at Deep Rock which apparently had eggs in his mouth - again I didn't know this until after the dive.

This is a crappy photo, it's over-exposed on the crab but I couldn't leave him out because he's just so cool. Taken at Deep Rock :P

Mantis Shrimp at Gato Island.

One of the many nudibranchs at Gato Island.

An awesome spider crab at Gato Island.

Another impressive nudibranch at Gato Island

Giant Cuttlefish at Gato Island

A questioning look from a mantis shrimp at Gato Island.

Not a great shot, but again this is a very cool shrimp from Gato Island so I had to put him in.

The Thresher Shark that spent over 30 mins with us on our last dive at Monad Shoal.