THE practice of community-based management of whale shark watching in Donsol, Sorsogon and Pintuyan, Southern Leyte has been introduced here during the one-day seminar dubbed as “Sustainable Encounters: Responsible Marine Wildlife Tourism Seminar held at Kew Hotel, Tagbilaran City on March 21, 2025.
The said practice is considered to be sustainable, without provisioning or feeding of the whale sharks, unlike here in Bohol, particularly in Lila, Alburquerque and Dauis towns.
Provisioning of whale shark would result to strong behavioral or change in immediate habits and movement, according to marine biologist Dr. Alessandro Ponzo, who tackled the “Impact of Marine Wildlife Tourism on Ecosystems.” Ponzo is co-founder of the Large Mammal Vertebrate (LAMAVE).
“Once they (whale sharks) smell krills, they never left for days,” Ponzo said.
Ponzo also said in his lecture that the feeding and the touching of whale sharks and other malpractice could result to habitat damaging from trampling and pollution and has no educational value and conservation benefit.
Donsol and Pintuyan, Southern Leyte, experience, as narrated by Dondon Llagas, Donsol’s tourism officer and Raul Cordova, vice-president of Leyte’s tour guides during the seminar, emphasized the no provisioning scheme. Bayanihan spirit and stakeholders partnership are being practiced.
Cordova said there was this French national who said he did not want the whale shark be fed.
Both Llagas and Cordova said that they inculcate the importance of awareness and education for their visitors considering that whale shark is seasonal.
They said that the presence of whale sharks has to be spotted within the vicinity, hence, visitors have to hire spotter. Unlike here in Bohol, visitors need not be employing spotter since there seems to be resident whale sharks.
Donsolanos called whale shark as “Butanding” while Pintuyan called the Gentle Giant as “Tiki-tiki.”
Llagas and Cordova also stressed the strict implementation of rules in whale shark interaction by educating the visitors before going into the whale watching.
These rules include: don’t block the whale’s path, keep distance of 4 meter away from it, no flash photography, no jet ski, maximum of six visitors for a whale shark, or five minutes of interaction.
Donsol’s whale watching began sometime in 1998 and since then, Llagas called Donsol as the whale shark watching capital of the world. It caters some 900 visitors up to 27,000 in 2012, generating revenue of $1.5 million in 2016.
Pintuyan’s venture in whale shark watching started in 2006 from zero to 12 whale sharks daily, catering some 1,000 visitors in a season, Ponzo said.
He added that the whale shark watching at Honda Bay, Puerto Prinsesa, Palawan, began in 2009 without provisioning.
A community-run Whale shark watching in Oslob, Cebu started in 2011 that is still providing feeding to the Gentle Giant. It averages 12 butandings for some 4,000 visitors daily. In total, the visitors could reach about half million visitors in a year.
Gov. Aris Aumentado, who opened the seminar program, laid his premise on Bohol’s marine ecosystems which are not just natural assets but heritage that sustains communities and drives the economy, Philippine Information Agency said.
