According to a study published in PeerJ, the Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences, the Philippines is home to the world’s largest fish, the whale shark which is locally known as Butanding. The species was listed in 2016 to “endangered to extinction” in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species due to a population decline of more than 50%, largely caused by continued exploitation in the Indo-Pacific.
Whales sharks are the largest fish in the world. They are not whales, they are sharks. They could be as large as 20 meters. They feed on plankton and travel large distances to find enough food to sustain their huge size, and to reproduce. Their white spotted colouration makes them easy to distinguish.
Whale sharks were targeted by fisheries in the Philippines into the late 1990s, but the species has been protected in the Philippines since 1998. The Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines (LAMAVE), a local NGO, has been studying whale sharks in the Philippines since 2012. They work with local and national governments as well as collaborating organizations to develop conservation strategies for this iconic species.
How many whale sharks are in the Philippines? In 2016, the 1000th whale shark was identified in Philippine waters, making the Philippines the third largest known aggregation of whale sharks in the world and the biggest in South East Asia, according to the online library Wildbook for whale sharks.
But hunting is not the only enemy of the ‘gentle giant’, as this fish is sometimes called. Plastic trash is also killing the fish. Only recently, a dead juvenile whale shark was found in Tagum City, Davao del Norte . The Necropsy revealed that the whale shark died due to “fishing nets, spear, dynamite fishing, and plastic ingestion.
Marine animals mistake plastic waste as food, sometimes causing blockages in their digestive system. Marine life can also become entangled in a variety of ocean debris including fishing nets, lines, and lures. According to a study from Plymouth University, plastic pollution affects at least 700 marine species, while some estimates suggest that at least 100 million marine mammals are killed each year from plastic pollution.
Another possible danger to whale sharks is human contact. In Oslob, Cebu and Donsol, Sorsogon, interaction with the Butanding is a major tourist attraction.
While authorities in these tourist destinations are doing the best they can to make the interaction environment-friendly and protect the fish, some experts believe the practice is unsustainable.
Experts say that whale sharks should not be fed, like what the fishermen were doing to lure the marine mammals toward their boats so tourists could take their photos. They said it would reduce the whale sharks’ hunting instinct and create dependency on humans. The creatures would always be near the open sea so there was no need to feed them.