Scuba Diving Monster Face Hammerhead Sharks Malpleo Island

Malpelo is home to an important coral formation as well as a large variety and quantity of marine creatures. Of special interest is the hammerhead shark with its awe-inspiring schools reaching up to 300 hundred individuals. The two most outstanding phenomena in Malpelo are the huge number of cluster and free swimming moray eels and the enormous congregations of silky sharks who often mix with hammerheads to form colossal shark schools.

Other common sites are the white tip shark, Galapagos shark, giant schools of angel fish, Creole fish, jacks, tuna, and occasionally a sail fish, whale shark and even Humpback Whale. Algae, moss and lichens cover the rugged cliffs of Malpelo which host the 2nd largest Masked Booby colony in the world, approximately twenty five thousand birds.

This is the north side of Virginia’s Altar located right under what looks like the huge face of a monster, which can be seen looking at Malpelo from the North. It is a perfectly vertical wall from where it is often possible to see big schools of hammerhead shark that are brave enough to stare down the Monster.