LEGAZPI CITY , Philippines – More whalesharks, locally known as butanding, are being sighted in Sorsogon and Albay provinces since the onset of the El Niño phenomenon in Bicol this year, a situation that prompted tourism officials here this week to regulate interaction between tourists and the giant sea-mammals.
Nini Ravanilla, Bicol director of the Department of Tourism (DOT), believes that the presence of bigger schools of butanding in the coastal waters of Donsol, Sorsogon is due to more abundant sea plankton during the dry spell. Butandings feed primarily on plankton.
Previously, whalesharks started to be observed only in December. “But this time, butanding sightings were reported as early as November. And at present, there are more butandings than last year in Donsol,” Ravanilla told The STAR.
She said that from the previous send-off of up to 50 bancas every three hours, they now allow only 30 bancas every three hours.
Ravanilla said that local and foreign tourists even agree to pay as much as P3,500 per boat for a three-hour butanding interaction, when the normal charge is P1,150 a day.
“While we welcome more tourists, we also need to regulate boat send offs and interactions to prevent over-exposure as well as fatigue of these gentle giants of the sea. Besides, they might get disturbed if we allow them to be overcrowded by tourists,” Ravanilla said.
Legazpi City mayor Noel Rosal said that four whalesharks are now sighted in the coastal waters of this city, particularly in the villages of Rawis, Arimbay and Bigaa.
Rosal said that they might put up whaleshark viewing structures along the coast should the number of butandings sighted in the coastal waters increase further in number.
“If these whalesharks troop to our coastal waters in big numbers and more frequently, it will be an added tourist attraction in our city,” Rosal told The STAR. – Cet Dematera