My trip to the Philippines this March, 2007 started with an over night stay in Manila and a mid morning flight one hour south to Legaspi. I was picked up by a Justine (actually a guy) from Pro Safari who I booked a 7 day package with. Our tour included everything from 3 days of diving at San Miguel Island, 2 days of whale shark encounters, all meals and accommodation at the Woodlands Resort in Dancalan, Donsol.

Donsol is known as the whale shark capital due to the highest concentration of whale sharks in the world. Whale sharks or "Butanding" as they are locally known have been frequenting the waters off Donsol for generations and in 1998, the Philippine Department of Tourism declared this area an official sanctuary for the Whale Shark, thus protected these gentle giants. Originally these creatures were hunted and killed in this area so to come a full circle and to be protected and respected in this way is just incredible to be a part of.

The whale shark is slow filter feeders and is the largest living fish species. It has five large pairs of gills and two small eyes located towards the front of the shark's wide, flat head. The shark has two pairs each of dorsal fins and pectoral fins and in some of the photos below you can see damage on these due to being hit by the outriggers. The body is mostly grey with a white belly with three prominent ridges running along each side of the animal. The pale spots are unique to each whale shark and can be used to identify each animal and this helped us when we tried to estimate at the end of each day how many different whale sharks we had encountered.

Whale sharks can reach 15 feet and we actually got the opportunity to swim with a giant 10 footer. The photos below which show the guide diving down with me help to put the sheer size of these fish in perspective. Whale sharks can be spotted year-round in the waters off Sorsogon however the peak season is February through April. The best times to go are as soon as the tourism office opens at 7:30am, as the waters are clearer and it easier to spot the whale sharks. I was lucky enough to get two sunny mornings before the clouds rolled in and we managed to swim with about 6 different sharks at close range both days. The visibility is about 5 feet due to the plankton in the water which is why the whale sharks are there in the first place. So can't really complain too much about that! With any kind of cloud coverage it is almost impossible for the spotter to see the whale sharks under the surface. The same goes for surface waves caused by wind.

Experiencing these giants of the sea at such close range was something I will never forget. I met some wonderful people during my trip and I am grateful for everyone’s help and kindness during my stay in The Philippines....until next time!

UPDATE!!!!
The ECOCEAN Whale Shark Photo-identification Library is a visual database of whale shark encounters and of individually cataloged whale sharks. They contacted me and posted various photographs from my trip into their data base! You can see the amazing work they so at http://ecocean.org