Tourists were dismayed when no whale sharks surfaced in the seas off Barangay Tan-awan in Cebu’s southern town of Oslob last week. These gentle sea creatures are a major attraction in the province, generating hundreds of millions of pesos from tourism activities over the years.
But unpredictability is one thing that’s certain as far as forces of nature are concerned. Regardless of how much artificial intervention is introduced to tame or control it, nature always finds a way to free itself from human design. An example of this inevitable truth is the whale sharks that roam around places like Oslob, which are rich sources of their natural food, plankton.
In fairness, the sudden disappearance of these sea animals is not unusual. There have been documented instances when they swam away, only to come back later on. In the early 2000s, they were reported to have fled for safety after poachers from other islands hunted them down for their fins.
The creatures only started reappearing in 2011 when fishermen hand-fed them baby shrimps to lure them away from damaging their fishing nets. This motivated the whale sharks to linger around for food, prompting locals to organize whale-watching activities.
Since then, feeding has become a regular program to entice whale sharks to artificially stay in Oslob. However, environmentalists say that the creatures should be allowed to freely disperse to other places as part of their natural migratory pattern.
In 2016, the Philippines figured in a controversy after organizers of the Miss Universe pageant were supposedly scheduled for whale shark watching in Oslob during a brief visit to Cebu. After the negative outcry, tourism authorities decided to strike out the event from the Miss Universe contestants’ itinerary.
But the controversy only ended up in further promoting the activity in Oslob. Adding to the attraction, the sea animals have been observed to deviate from their natural behavior by actively engaging with tourists either on board outrigger boats or in actually swimming with them in the open sea instead of shying away.
At the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-2021, the sea creatures again disappeared in Oslob. As each whale shark needs around 40 kilograms of plankton daily, fishermen found it difficult to feed them due to the economic hardships brought about by worldwide tourism restrictions.
This week, however, the whale sharks’ desertion is caused entirely by natural causes. Tourism officials explain that the creatures are filter feeders that follow their food sources. Since plankton shift naturally with sea currents and the seasons, the creatures follow their movements. This means that the Oslob’s whale sharks are currently reverting to their natural instinct of finding food sources outside of the usual area where they are fed.
But the shift is only temporary, locals assure. Historical experience shows that Oslob’s whale sharks have a tendency to roam around elsewhere, only to reappear after a while.
Just the other day, I personally messaged Cebu Provincial Tourism Officer Rowena Montecillo to find out if the sea animals have returned. She said that two whale sharks were being watched by tourists in Oslob that day. Delightful enough for visitors, the number is more or less the same during a routine lean season in 2024.
Currently, there are around 2,000 whale sharks worldwide. An estimated 20 percent or more than 400 of these aquatic animals have been recorded in Oslob where they have been fed regularly since 2011.
Locals who derive their daily income from whale shark watching should therefore have no worries of long-lasting negative implications of the current natural phenomenon.
