Whale shark sighted in polluted Manila Bay

MANILA, Philippines–A butanding (whale shark) that wandered into the polluted waters of Manila Bay Thursday afternoon had an injured fin, the Philippine Coast Guard said.

PCG’s port state control officer, Cmdr. Ruben de Guzman, said boatmen notified the coast guard about the sighting of the butanding around 3 p.m.

De Guzman said the four-to-five meter whale had a laceration about four inches long on its back or dorsal fin, so much so that “the fin looked like it was broken.”

Two rubber boats, one speedboat and two patrol boats carrying PCG divers and special operations group personnel, later arrived in the area of the sighting, about 10 meters from the Roxas Boulevard Seawall fronting the Rajah Sulayman Park in Malate, Manila.

“Our divers planned to escort the butanding to open sea but then they saw the fin injury. Still, however, the butanding was very playful with our divers. Our concern now is that it would not wander near jagged rocks (of the breakwater)” De Guzman told reporters in a phone interview.

At press time, the PCG was awaiting the arrival of experts from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources to decide what to do with the fish, De Guzman said.

The PCG official said butanding sightings are “very rare” on Manila Bay, adding that the whale probably got lost far into the sea after getting injured. He said Thursday’s sighting was the second he knew about; the first was in 2009 when the butanding, which was also injured, died.