My friend Luis is like Christmas in that he comes around once a year and so give or take a few weeks, he was back in April a year after his last visit when we did the Pinatubo trek. Hence, I needed to arrange some form of entertainment for him (and his daughter on this occasion) for the weekend he was visiting.
Time was limited so it had to be something reasonably accessible. We'd done swimming with Whale Sharks the first year he was over, in Donsol (see Having a Whale of a Time), but there was a new phenomenon related to Whale Sharks in the Philippines. Whereas in Donsol you relied on a passing Whale Shark to swim along and you jumped in the sea to take a gander and swim after the beast, the process of Whale Shark spotting in Oslob was somewhat different. Here, much to the disapproval of environmentalists, the Whale Sharks are fed from canoes by the local fishermen. This is means rather than having to swim to keep up with them as they cruise pass, you can hang in the water whilst the sharks passively wait for their next mouthful of hand delivered shrimp.
It really is a marvel to see. They remind me of Koi carp in a pond, gasping at the surface in anticipation of being fed and just as placid and relaxed. I'm not sure what the fishermen put in the shrimp that keeps them coming back for more, after all how can a meagre handful of shrimp keep a fish of that size happy, but there's absolutely plenty of them to see.
The process is under attack by environmentalists as they say it's unnatural and possibly harmful to the sharks but as Luis and I agreed, if they didn't like being gawped at by a load of humans splashing around in the sea, then surely they've move on; it's a big ocean out there. And as I see it, the advantage is all the time the Whale Sharks are the livelihood of the fishermen and the villagers then they're less likely to fall victim to the Japanese whaling fleet, or worse, the Chinese who fin sharks and leave them to drown. Although to honest, I'm not sure if Whale Shark fin is used for shark fin soup but better not the take the risk, eh?
The location is Oslob on the south-east coast of Cebu. In fact, it's very, very close to Sumilon Island that I visited in August 2009 (see Island Life). Back then this was not something that was happening and no one knew anything about it. Speaking to the locals I was told that the fishermen of the area have known about the Whale Sharks for many years but it only started as a commercial venture when they come across the idea of attracting the sharks to show to the tourists going to Sumilon Island to make some extra money. Now its ballooned into a major form of income for the locals in provision of not only the Whale Shark watching but also accommodation, cafes, restaurants, transportation, gift shops and tours to other local attractions.
Images were captured on a Gopro Hero 2. The video quality is amazing and when I have time I'll edit it, removing all the frames of me looking into the camera looking gormless trying to work out if it's actually recording or not.
