SCAR FACE
He’s Oslob town’s most frequent whale shark visitor known by locals as “Fermin”.
Marine researchers noticed that Fermin, who disappeared for three days this month, resurfaced with eleven S-shaped cuts in his face and a wounded left eye —the result of contact with propeller blades of a boat.
Fermin must have been expecting to find food, like other “friendly” whale sharks that swim close to Oslob’s coast to follow paddle boats of fishermen who toss krill in the water, a strategy that allows tourists to have a close encounter with the world’s biggest fish species.
Photos of Fermin’s face with cuts appear in the blog of the Italian-based research group Physalus in their Large Marine Verterbrate Project (Lamave).
The discovery has spurred an online petition urging environment authorities to stop the tourism-induced practice of hand feeding whale sharks.
The practice of hand feeding has made Oslob, a new whale shark watching capital of the Philippines, and is being duplicated in the western town of Moalboal.
“I don’t think that hand feeding is good because it changes the whale sharks’ natural behavior. It will stop them from migrating. They are getting used to people which is dangerous because we are predators to them,” said Alessandro Ponzo, director of Physalus, in a phone interview with Cebu Daily News recently.
“The danger is not in Oslob. It is the learning that they get in Oslob that is dangerous. The main problem I think is that when they leave Oslob, they get wounded by propellers of other boats.”
The group Physalus has been conducting daily monitoring of Oslob waters since March this year.
Marine experts noticed that several whale sharks had head scratches and scars from bumping the hulls of feeder boats, as if nudging them to be fed.
The marine animals also seemed to associate bubbles — from divers, snorkelers, and propeller blades – with food.
Fermin got at least 11 parallel scars from the left side of his mouth running past his left eye, said the research group Physalus.
To the ordinary eye, one whale shark looks like another but the pattern of spots are unique for each animal.
Fermin, described as a juvenile male whale shark, appears in the database of whaleshark.org and and goes by photo identification P-382.
Fermin was one of the first whale sharks documented by Filipino researcher Elson Aca of World Wildlife Fund for Nature Philippines (WWF-Phils) in December 2011.
Over 60 sharks have been identified by Physalus’ project in barangay Tan-awan, Oslob, where about 10 sharks are seen daily, an increase from the six what were seen daily in April.
“Fermin is the first of the regular sharks to obtain a serious injury, but the number of sharks associating boats with food is increasing. The spread of feeding activities to other municipalities would exponentially increase the number of sharks learning this behaviour, and thereby exposing a greater proportion of the whale shark population in the Visayas to serious injury.” said the research group.
Photos of each whale shark are taken every day by Physalus.
Fermin was photographed last July 11 with a callous on its head from constant contact with the hulls of the motorbanca of feeders in Oslob.
Fishermen alerted the group when they couldn’t find Fermin for three days.
When he resurfaced on July 20, Fermin wasn’t feeding and he had many scars across his face. His eye looked like it was damaged.
During another survey later than day, Fermin was back to feeding from at least two different boats. He had 11 parallel scars running from the top of the mouth, past the eye on the left side of his head. Two appear to be fairly deep, and one cut is across the left eye. The face cuts were regularly spaced with a slight S-shape, which pointed to propellor blade contact. From the size of the wounds, the propellor probably belonged to a small bangka or pump boat, said the researchers in largemarinevertebratesproject.blogspot.com.
It was not clear whether the damage to Fermin’s left eye affected his vision. Fermin was observed to ‘roll’ his eye back, a behaviour common to many shark species to protect the eye from damage, so he still has motor ability.”
“These lacerations at regular intervals, with a slight S-shape are indicative of propeller contact. Judging from the size of the wounds, the propeller probably belonged to a small banca,” said Ponzo said in the blog.
The online protest petition written by Aca is addressed to Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala and Environment Secretary Ramon Paje.
“The scientists studying whale sharks in the Philippines are concerned about the possible changes in the behavior of those whale sharks that are now accustomed to feeding. Whale sharks exhibited head scratches and scrapes from bumping into feeder boats. In addition they have been observed seemingly associate bubbles from divers and snorkelers as food. While this behavior is already accepted and understandable already by the fishermen of Oslob, it might pose a different situation once these migratory whalesharks move outside of Oslob,” the petition read.
Oslob’s whale shark watching tours officially started January this year, drawing 400 visitors daily on weekdays and double that on weekends.
The most number of visitors was recorded in February during the Chinese New Year when it reached almost 2,000.
An Oslob municipal ordinance regulates whale shark watching, and prohibits visitors from touching the marine animals or swimming less than five meters from them but the rules are not consistently or fully enforced.
Aca said the feeding activity has changed the behavior of the whale sharks and dulls their survivor instincts.
“The most logical explanation would be that Fermin went on to feed in an area unfamiliar with Oslob’s feeding practices. Regular Oslob whale sharks’ usual approach of bumping the boat from behind might be seen as an aggressive behavior by fishermen, causing them to open their motors and leave hence the propeller scars on the head,” Aca said.
“What is worrisome is that it might not only happen to Fermin. Would we still wait for that to happen to other whalesharks as well.,”
At least 49 organizations and environmentalists have signed the petition so far.
