Posted on enero, 14 2005

Donsol, the Philippines – 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.

For more information: 
Ruel Pine, Community-based Ecotourism and
Coastal Resource Management Project Manager
WWF-Philippines
E-Mail: rpine@wwf.org.ph