15/01/2005 – Time Magazine
has identified the WWF-supported whale shark
interaction programme in the Philippines’
Donsol River as the “Best Place for an Animal
Encounter”.
Donsol is known as the whale shark capital
of the world because of the high number of
whale sharks, locally known as butanding,
found in its municipal waters. For decades,
whale sharks have migrated to the mouth of
the Donsol to feed on plankton.
“These filter feeders are attracted by the
abundance of zooplanktons, small fishes, squids,
and crustaceans in the waters of Donsol,”
said Ruel Pine, WWF-Philippines’ Community-based
Ecotourism and Coastal Resource Management
Project Manager.
“Based on tour boat trips made in 2004, one
can sight as many as 30 whale sharks a day.”
The international magazine also recognized
the Sulu-Sulawesi Seas — the waters around
Donsol — for its high degree of biodiversity
and WWF’s objective in enhancing the value
of ecotourism through its work on coastal
resource management.
WWF-Philippines, together with Donsol's local
government, local police, women groups, and
fishing communities, set up the Task Force
Sagip Kalikasan (TFSK), which regularly monitors
the municipal waters, particularly against
illegal pangulong or purse seine fishing —
fishing by industrial nets that encircle schools
of fish at one time.
“The whale shark ecotourism programme is
a testimony to the importance of a successful
multi-stakeholder involvement,” Pine said.
According to WWF, at least five commercial
fishing boats are found in Donsol's municipal
waters each night engaged in pangulong fishing,
despite a Philippine law prohibiting commercial
fishing boats from operating in municipal
waters and other fishery management areas.
“The TFSK is now gaining momentum in terms
of capacity building and popular support,
especially from coastal communities,” Pine
noted. “We hope that we can find additional
resources to sustain its long-term operations.”
The project is programmed to extend counterpart
support on marine protection and conservation,
including coastal law enforcement until 2008.
Notes:
• The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is the
world’s largest living fish, measuring up
to 14m and weighing in at 125 tons. Despite
its name and enormous size, the whale shark
is not a whale, but classified in a family
of its own — Rhincodontidae — with its closest
relatives being leopard sharks and nurse sharks.
• Whale sharks are found throughout tropical
waters and have been seen in many parts of
the Philippines, particularly in Donsol, some
500km southeast of the capital, Manila. Tourists
flock to Donsol between the months of January
and June, the time when the spotted giants
usually appear. Tourists are allowed to swim
with them as long as they follow strict rules,
keep their distance, and don't use scuba gear.
• Although listed under Appendix II of the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a
status which strictly regulates the trade
of the species based on quotas and permits
to prevent their unsustainable use, whale
sharks continue to be harvested for a variety
of products, including their liver oil and
fins.
• The waters around Donsol are part of the
Sulu-Sulawesi Seas ecoregion, one of WWF's
Global 200 ecoregions — a science-based global
ranking of the world's most biologically outstanding
habitats and the regions on which WWF concentrates
its efforts.
