Whale sharking in Donsol

It's high time I wrote a blog from the Philippines, which is quickly shaping up to be our favourite country so far. Okay, it’s pretty Westernised in comparison to other South East Asian countries, which was not what I was after when we set off traveling, but Filipinos are just so god-damn lovely and the scenery so good, it’s hard to resist. I really should blog on the amazing trekking around ancient rice terraces that went down in the first 2 weeks of being here, but instead here’s a quickie about our whale shark experience on Monday, one of the primary reasons I wanted to come to this archipelago of 7000 islands in the first place.

The name whale shark, or butanding in the local lingo, is perfectly simple, but entirely appropriate. It’s like a whale; it’s big and slow but really it’s a shark, it breathes through gills and has the trademark fin on top of its body. Fortunately, it shares more similarities in character to a whale; it’s gentle and eats plankton, meaning we can jump in the water with it, without fearing for our trailing limbs. And this is exactly what happens in Donsol, South Luzon, which is pretty much the premier whale shark watching spot in the world, these giants can’t get enough of the ample plankton around the bay, especially at this time of the year. According to the ever-reliable Lonely Planet, “during the peak months of March-May, it’s not a question of seeing a whale shark, but how many you will see.” However, since we’ve been in the Philippines, we’ve heard many stories of people missing out, so it was with a healthy amount of anxiety we set out that morning. After teaming up with 4 other tourists and briefly meeting the boat crew, we had a few seconds to go over the rules and regulations of whale shark interaction.

Sorry, it’s the best picture i could find online, I would just like to draw your attention to 2 rules in particular; only 1 boat per whale shark and maximum of 6 swimmers per whale shark. However, when we headed out onto the water we were greeted by a sight more like this:

Okay, obviously that’s an exaggeration, but when our boat finally pulled up to the action, there were literally about 30 tourists, mainly Korean and Filipino, thrashing and flapping around in the water with the lifejackets on. Hmm. . . . . probably not ideal for the whale shark, but we weren’t about to be the only ones missing out, so before our captain even had time to say “ready?”, our snorkels were in and we swam out to join the meleé. We managed to cut a way through the splashing crowd and have a look under the water. Lo and behold there was the world’s biggest fish not more than 3 metres below us! Sarah and i managed to swim in time with it, directly overhead for a good minute or so, before a new group of Koreans smashed into our path. Steady, we’re not on the Seoul underground now guys. Soon after they gate-crashed the party, the whale shark dove to deeper depths and was out of sight. I had mixed feelings of elation at sharing the water with such a big beast, which were dampened slightly by the massive flouting of the regulations and the subsequent over-crowding. However, I couldn’t be too down-heartened; if the rules weren’t flouted we’d never have been in the water in the first place and after all, WE SAW A WHALE SHARK! After a few confused minutes trying to work out which of the tens of boats was ours (we really should have made a mental note of the boat name!) we clambered back on deck and then the chase was on again. Another one had been spotted! This time, our boat crew was a bit cuter, maneuvering the boat almost into the path of the whale shark, this meant when we jumped in we got an awesome, full head-shot as it swam towards us. Amazing. We then hastily turned around and gave chase, but a predicted clash of groups resulted in confusion as to which way the gentle giant had headed. Bugger this, it’s every man for himself now, I put my arm in front of my head, Superman style – more to protect myself from a fin to the face than in an heroic attempt to save the whale shark. We managed to enjoy another minute or so swimming above it before it too had enough of all these flapping fish nearby and dove deeper.

It was awesome to realise a mini-dream to swim alongside these awesome creatures but it wasn’t enough! (I know, never happy. . . . !) Definitely going to check out where it is even remotely possible to dive with them and hopefully get some more quality time with the wonderful butanding.