The Long and Winding Road – Face to Face with a Whale Shark

The whale shark encounter is actually a gamble. Whale sharks are wild animals (meaning they are not kept in cages for the tourists to see) so it’s really the work of faith and luck to witness the grandeur of one of the largest mammals on earth.

And because it was a gamble, the team would really want to maximize their bets. It’s no joke paying 700Php++  per person out of nothing so we ‘kinda’ played safe.

The government of Donsol continuously protects the whale sharks by imposing rules regarding the whale shark encounter. One of the rules is securing that there will only be 30 boats on the waters at the same time. So this leads them to having 2 batches every day. We placed our bets by registering for the second batch. The logic behind was if there will be a sighting for the first batch then the second batch will have a higher probability of seeing it also.

Before boarding the boat, the tourists need to undergo a 15-minute orientation/presentation of the rules and regulations. This also gives us an idea of what to expect and what to do during the encounter.

We started to sail at 11AM. We were divided into 2 groups because the policy says that a maximum of 6 persons [per boat] can interact with the whale shark at any given time. We were excited (me afraid) to meet the gentle giant. We sailed for almost 2 hours but the gentle giant was still out of sight. We were beginning to get frustrated because we cannot afford to stay for another day in Donsol. We need to move to Matnog the next day (and that is a strict IT. :P) So our companions started praying. Oops! Pati ako nakisali.

Well prayers do really help! After a few more minutes the spotter from another banca saw the whale shark and alerted our BOI. Our bangkero (being the expert that he is) positioned our boat on the most likely path of the fish. Our BOI instructed us to sit on the edge and jump. When he said “Look down!” we all submerged ourselves and the moment of glory came rushing though our veins.

The first thing we saw was its enormous mouth. It was directly underneath us. I was delirious at the same time excited [more of afraid.] We stayed there for a couple of minutes and watch the creature swim past us. I thought we will be slapped by its tail because it seemed so close. I was actually frantic when I saw the tail.

We don’t have pictures of the Butanding encounter. But the image and the grandeur of the whale shark will always be in our minds - forever.

Group Picture after the encounter. Happy kids! :)