Whale Sharks in Puerto? May 16, 2009

Whaleshark (courtesy of Duncan Murrell)


A School of Eagle Rays that Came Swimming Toward Us
(courtesy of Duncan Murrell)


Me, Swimming with a Giant Manta Ray with a 3 meter wingspan
(courtesy of Duncan Murrell)

To view more pictures of the Butanding, taken with my grocery store bought Kodak plastic camera, click here. To view more of Duncan's fabulous images, click here.

The whale shark, Rhincodon typus, (Butanding, in Tagalong) is the largest living fish species in the world. It can grow to be 12 meters (40 feet) long and weigh up to 15 tons. These beautiful and massive creatures are the gentle giants of the sea. They feed on plankton and krill (small shrimp) and move slowly through warm ocean waters. For more information on whale sharks click here.

The tiny town of Donsol in Southern Luzon is known as the only place in the Philippines to spot whale sharks. May is considered to be off-season for whale shark watching, and it is entirely possible to go out and come back without having spotted any at all. The reports I’d been hearing from fellow travelers about their experiences in Donsol weren’t great—because of the popularity of the activity and the lack of whale sharks people were reporting sightings of one whale shark sighting in one day with 8 to 10 boats on its tail and up to 100 people in snorkeling gear swimming around trying to follow it. Since, one of the primary reasons I had come to the Philippines was to see the whale sharks—I was prepared to take two flights from Palawan and give it a gander anyway.

But while in El Nido, I heard about a British photographer named Duncan who was photographing whale sharks in Puerto—apparently he was willing to take groups of up to 6 tourists from the Banwa guest house with him on his boat. I called the Butanding Center in Donsol to see whether they knew of the existence of whale sharks in Puerto and they told me that there were none. But the Banwa guest house in Puerto confirmed that Duncan had indeed been taking people to see the whale sharks for the past 6 days. So, Galit, Debbie and I changed our plans to fly to Donsol and made a beeline back to Puerto.

Swimming With Duncan, Whale Sharks, Manta Rays, and Eagle Rays.

Duncan Murrell has spent a good part of his life photographing marine wildlife. Before the Philippines he spent 20 years in Alaska photographing the humpback whales. He has been following the whale sharks in Puerto on and off over the past 2+ years, and will occasionally take tourists when the conditions are good. Unlike in Donsol, we were only one boat with five snorkelers and we had the whale sharks and the ocean all to ourselves.

I was incredibly lucky to witness a rare phenomenon that Duncan had encountered only once before: because the water was so full of plankton and krill—whale sharks, and schools of Eagle Rays and giant Manta Rays were feeding together. This is how it went:

Our spotter signaled for us to jump into the ocean because he had spotted the wings of mantas jetting out of the water. I jumped in the water and as I was adjusting my mask Galit started screaming and pointing behind me. I thought she was warning me about the bamboo floaters on the outrigger that were perilously close to my head but as I turned around to grab a hold of them a baby whale shark measuring approximately 4 meters (12 feet) nearly ran into me. This massive animal was inches away, completely unperturbed by our boat or my presence. I was so excited that I could barely breathe and I completely forgot to take its picture. Later, while I was following a school of eagle rays swimming with a few giant manta rays, a 9 meter Butanding came to swim peacefully beside me. Because she was moving slowly, I was able to observe her closely and watch the various species of cleaner fish that had attached themselves to her sides and tails. At one point, she opened her gills to breathe and an 8 inch cleaner fish that had been feeding in the area got sucked right in and met a terrible fate.

There are no words I could write that could come close to describing the experience of swimming with this majestic animal. And unfortunately, because my underwater camera died the day before, I also have no video or decent pictures (except for the ones I took with a cheap underwater camera). Duncan was kind enough to provide me with a few images he took with his professional grade camera. To see Duncan’s images, click here.