Donsol Whale Shark Trip

For those who have no seen a Whale shark, you must head out to Donsol, a small sleeping coastal village in the region of Sorsogon in Luzon, Philippines. Here during the months of January to June, whale sharks in the tens decend into the bay to feed on the planktons. An average of about 10 sharks are spotted daily and these figures are less than last year's average because some fucking taiwanese are directly or indirectly killing whale sharks for their fins for the Asian shark fin market.

I went there last year and this year and the differences were strongly felt. Last year I saw about 9 whale sharks on our own ( the rule is that only one boat can approach a whale shark and that only 6 swimmers can swim along a whale shark at any one time ) whlist this year I only saw 3 and there were something like 18 swimmers in the water trying to get a glimpse of the shark.
As there were so few sharks and so many boats ( 77 on a Saturday morning ), everyone broke the rule and just jumped in.

The whale shark interaction as it is called is very unigue. Swimming with a whale shark especially the huge one that is around 10 meters in length with its mouth wide open and heading towards you is one hell of an experience. I almost wanted to swim into the mouth and out thru one of its 6 gills openning located just behind the head as I sometimes feel like a tiny plankton besides this animal. The whale shark is such a playful and gentle animal and if it does not feel threaten, it will just swim around you. Someone must tell the shark to maintain a 3 meters distance from humans as it is sometimes not possible for us to do this. Most times you can easily reached out and touch the shark but we are not allowed to do this as we can remove the protective membrance of the shark and it will then suffer from bacteria attack. This i was told. I strongly feel that the only sea animal or rather mammal that I want to touch is dolphine.

Besides the whale sharks, Donsol offers great diving at Manta Basin where we saw 6 mantas in 3 dives and lots of macro in nearby St Migual islands.

I would definitely go there again next year as where can you only spend less than USD500 for a 5/4 nights vacation with whale sharks.