Pescador Island — Moalboal

Planning a trip?

Hotels, dive operators, gear, and how to get here are on the Moalboal location page.

Overview

Small offshore islet ringed by walls and the famous Cathedral cavern at 18 m. Soft coral and gorgonians cover the walls and pelagic thresher sharks are seen in the deeper blue at dawn. Easy boat hop from Moalboal town.

What you'll see

4 species curated

Pelagic thresher shark
rare
Frogfish
year-round
Hawksbill turtle
year-round
Banded sea krait
year-round

Sightings evidence

1 record on file

Pelagic thresher shark
low confidence
Last confirmed
May 2026
Recent records
8 within 50 km

Sources & methodology

How we summarise this

We aggregate confirmed occurrence records from GBIF and OBIS within a fixed radius of each dive site. Occurrence records confirm presence and reveal seasonality clustering, but they DO NOT measure per-dive probability — there is no eligible-effort denominator. We deliberately do not publish a numeric '% chance of sighting' from this data.

Sources

Global Biodiversity Information Facility — GBIF Secretariat
Ocean Biodiversity Information System — IOC-UNESCO
iNaturalist — California Academy of Sciences & National Geographic Society
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature
Wildbook (Sharkbook, Whale Shark, Manta Matcher) — Wild Me
OBIS-SEAMAP — Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab / OBIS
WoRMS — World Register of Marine Species — Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
FishBase — FishBase Consortium
Atlas of Living Australia — CSIRO / GBIF Australia
REEF Volunteer Fish Survey — Reef Environmental Education Foundation

Conditions

Month	Water	Visibility	Current
Jan	26–28 °C	20–30 m	mild
Feb	26–28 °C	20–30 m	mild
Mar	27–29 °C	25–35 m	mild
Apr	28–30 °C	25–35 m	mild
May	28–30 °C	25–35 m	mild
Jun	28–30 °C	20–30 m	mild
Jul	27–29 °C	15–25 m	moderate
Aug	27–29 °C	15–25 m	moderate
Sep	27–29 °C	15–25 m	moderate
Oct	27–29 °C	20–30 m	mild
Nov	27–29 °C	20–30 m	mild
Dec	26–28 °C	20–30 m	mild

Season calendar

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Peak season highlighted · current month outlined

Gear for this site

Beyond the basic kit

Dive light — For the Cathedral cavern interior.

Next step

Book your trip to Moalboal

Hotels, liveaboards, dive operators, gear recommendations, and travel logistics for the whole region.

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