VERA Files
The Bohol Sea is an important marine heritage site and one of the country’s richest fishing grounds, but overfishing has led to a diminishing catch.
By AMER R. AMOR
Fourteen years after the discovery of a large pod of whale sharks or butanding in Donsol, Sorsogon, people around the world continue to troop to this small fishing town in southern Luzon to swim with the whale sharks from December until May.
By AMER R. AMOR
It was an image Butanding Interaction Officer (BIO) Allan Amanse swears he will remember for the rest of his life. A 28-year-old fisherman had joined him swim with a whale shark, the world’s largest fish, off the waters of Pamilacan Island in Bohol. The fisherman saw how the whale shark, popularly called butanding, glided gently beside Amanse and marveled at the fascinating bond between them. The fisherman, recalling how he would join his father hunt for whale sharks when he was only seven, wept upon realizing there is a better way of coexisting with the gentle giants of the deep.