Whale Shark Sightseeing In Misamis Oriental Pushed

The local government of this coastal town in Misamis Oriental province is pushing to institutionalize “whale shark” sightseeing as part of the province’s aggressive tourism campaign.

Mayor Rommel Maslog said the town’s municipal council is now crafting an ordinance that would set strict guidelines for divers on ways to interact with the endangered whale shark.

“We would pattern our guidelines to the famous whale shark tourism in Oslob, Cebu,” Maslog said in an interview with the Philippines News Agency on Wednesday.

Talisayan and the Gingoog Bay are slowly becoming a premier dive spot, which is the closest mainland town of the tourism-rich island province of Camiguin, Maslog said.

“One of the must-sees in the area are the whale sharks that pass through as their migration route,” he said.

However, Maslog said, the local tourism activities are yet to rival, let alone equal, that of the phenomenon in the northern town of Oslob in Cebu.

He said that in recent years, environmental critics surmised that the Oslob whale shark tour experience is psychologically harmful and traumatizing to whale sharks which are declared as endangered species per Republic Act 9147.

Aware of the observation, Maslog said that the municipal government of Talisayan would first invite the environmentalist group to draft the salient points in the legislation of the “Whale Shark Ordinance” here.

Whale sharks are slow-moving filter feeding sharks and the largest known extant fish species with an average length of 41.5 feet.

But despite its size, it does not pose any threat to humans.

On the contrary, the whale shark even tolerates swimmers to hitch rides with them, but this practice, such as the one done in Oslob, is criticized because studies have been conducted concluding that it disturbs the sharks psychologically especially when they are intentionally touched by the divers.

Whale sharks have been present in Talisayan since the 1950s and hunting them for their fins was the source of income to at least two coastal villages in the province.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) banned the commercial whale shark fishing in the country in 1998, Maslog said. (PNA) JMC/CD/MARK FRANCISCO