On my vacation in February 2011, I went to Oslob with my family. Oslob is a town in Cebu City and is only about 3 hours away from where I live (Talisay City). The town has become famous because of the whale sharks that have been frequenting its waters. I had planned to go to Donsol in Legazpi on that vacation to swim with whale sharks but when I heard that this attraction is also in Cebu, obviously I didn't need to go to Donsol anymore.
So we went there early morning. We probably arrived there at around 8am. You have to pay some fees to some people there. We rented a small cottage for our things and myself and cousins, sister and mom and a friend of mine got our tickets and geared up for the sightseeing. Gears mean, life jackets. We had to wait for about an hour before it was our turn to go into the sea. There were few boats and lots of waiting tourists/curious peeps. The sun was getting too hot and my skin was starting to tan. There was a light shower just before this almost overwhelming heat arrived. There were a group of japanese tourists who put on their diving gears in front of our cottage.
Finally it was our turn. I was on a boat with my cousin Cielo and one other local tourist. My sister, friend and cousin got their own individual boats. They each were on the smallest boats. In the photo above is my sister. I took the shot from my boat. We were lucky at that time since there were 3 or 4 whale sharks swimming that day. I saw at least two of them. I got into the water and noticed that the whale shark was swimming beneath me. I was so excited when I jumped into the water but was just plain scared when I saw his silhouette underneath me. I panicked that I swam towards another tourist and held his hand. He looked at me wondering what was going on and I just pretended not to be scared and just looked straight ahead. I let go of his hand when the whale shark had disappeared and swam quickly to the boat, climbed up and never looked back at the guy. My mother on the otherhand who was alone in her boat wasn't really interested in seeing this animal. She's a bit scared about these things. But the boatman was very enthusiastic and very eager to show her the whales. After spotting a whale she told the boatman to go back to the shore as she is done with it already. But the boatman was just so eager, that he paddled towards the whale so she can have a closer look.
It's so cute how the fishermen are so eager to share this amazing experience to others. They are quite proud of this attraction that they have and how they get to be the ones to introduce the tourists to the whale sharks. This attraction though has not been regulated by the government and there are no laws about this. Some people are protesting against this practice especially the environmental and animal groups.
It was a bit sad to see how the whale sharks are living their lives in Oslob. I am just speaking from observation. During the whale watching sessions, one of the fishermen will be on a boat and will be throwing food at the whale shark..I don't know what it is but it's some kind of shrimp, tiny tiny shrimps..like a shrimp fry. This way they will get the whale shark to go wherever they want. I feel a bit sorry for the whale sharks because they are like the samurais in the rurouni kenshin movie who became slaves to opium. They'd do anything to smoke opium and lost the honor and pride of a samurai. Swimming with the whale sharks isn't prohibited. You can go near them and touch them if you want. I don't know if the fishermen realize the dangers of this. They are convinced that these are gentle creatures and that there's no need to worry. I'm not so sure if some legislation with regard to regulation of this practice is being made. I sure hope so.
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