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| the Butanding aka whale shark |
3-4 hours away from Cebu City lays the coastal town of
Oslob. What used to be a sleepy fishing
barrio
has come into International scrutiny after outsiders discovered its rare
treasure: The Whale Shark.
Normally migratory creatures, the biggest fish in the world
has made the pristine waters of Oslob their home year round.
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| one big baby |
While Donsol may be the breeding ground of these gentle
giants, the big butandings tend to
leave their relatively huge young in the Oslob area, enjoying its plankton rich
waters. As big as they are, they can
only eat krill and plankton, as anything bigger than that just won’t go in.
Our mediocre adventure began when we rode the clean and
comfortable Ceres bus that plies the Cebu-Santander route. At 169 pesos/adult,
we headed out to Liloan, Santander where we had booked into Eden Resort.
Santander is a 30 minute ride past Oslob, specifically the barangay of
Tan-Awan.
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| on the edge of your seat driving. 40 kph? Really?!! I could've sworn we were running way faster than that |
While the buses may be comfortable, one must brace one’s
self against the recurring panic one may encounter from the Cebuano-driven
vehicles that pass through the 2 way roads. Break neck speeds at blind curves
and hair pin bends, not to mention an incoming bus or truck while all this is
going on is enough for you to start mentally chanting a prayer to the heavens
above.
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| Phil taking a picture from out in the open sea |
Now back to the whale shark interaction:
Based on our experience, we hired a tricycle to bring us to
and fro Oslob. The tricycle driver was to wait for us the whole time we had
that interaction. This costs around 500 php.
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| circling the heard |
He brought us to a resort that charged us 70 php
registration fee/adult and a 500 php/adult interaction fee, which included the
rental of snorkeling gear, a paddle boat and the assistance of boatmen.
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| for good swimmers, you could take off the bulky life vests |
We were
also handed out life vests and given a 5 minute (ish) seminar on the proper
interaction behavior (no touching the sharks, stay 4m away from the so you
won’t impede their movements, no scuba diving to prevent excessive bubbles
around them as they will chase you thinking you have food, and lastly, no flash
photography). Speaking of cameras, underwater cameras are available for rent (200 php, or so I heard).
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| we and those few other boats were it as far as the whale shark crowd went |
From the shore, you could actually see the dorsal fins of
the fish. Oslob’s waters were teeming with whale sharks, unlike in Donsol,
where a “hunt” for the big creatures must be done by a spotter.
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| MAX freaking out as the big mouth came closer :P |
According to the locals, the fish have been
around Oslob for the longest time, so they were quite surprised with all the attention
it was getting. They also said that the whale sharks stayed there year round
often appearing in the early morning while the waters were cool.
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| feeding time all done :D |
The boat used for this interaction was a small fisherman’s paddle boat (much like a canoe). We went
a few meters from the shore and met up with a lone fisherman on a boat who was
throwing this fishy (putrid) smelling stuff in the water. Apparently, they were
feeding the whale shark dried krill. The whale shark was following our boat around
because of this.
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| like gentle puppies, they follow the boat that has the food |
One of the boatmen then anchored our boat and allowed us to
go into the water and swim with the whale shark. Phil and MAX did that while I
stayed and captured the whole thing for posterity’s sake. I wasn’t able to go
into the water (though it was calm, not so deep that and pretty clear you can
see the bottom of the sea from this point). I blame it on my Donsol experience
where we were in deeper waters, stronger waves and bigger whale sharks…getting
bumped by a whale shark as it surfaced and I was swimming on top of it).
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| "Durian" the whale shark as named by the local fishermen |
BTW, we were given 30 minutes for the total experience.
Oslob has come under fire from the scrutiny of
environmentalist groups who have voiced out their concerns regarding the
“unnatural” goings on in the area.
For one, with the desire of the local fishermen to have a
seemingly “closer” relationship with the whale sharks, they have taken to feeding
the fish, krill. You have to understand that feeding animals in the wild may,
according to the experts short circuit their natural instincts. That includes
fending for themselves in the wild, and well, not treating man as your…er best friend.
There is of course, the occasional whale shark that gets
treated like a surf board for photo ops by enthusiastic tourists.
At the time of our visit, I didn’t see anyone “abuse” the
whale shark. I saw man and beast live
harmoniously in what seemed to be a beautiful symbiotic relationship.
Maybe the folks in Oslob have learned a thing or two from
the environmentalists, or not wanting to push the envelope and losing business,
they decided to straighten their act. But whatever the case maybe, they’re
pretty organized down there.
It’ a good thing we reserved judgment in heading off to
Oslob amidst the controversy. We’ll
probably be back…real soon :D
From TMW, may all your wanderings be better than ours!
