Donsol waters seen breeding ground, too, of ‘butanding’

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines—A baby whale shark accidentally caught in Donsol in Sorsogon last year has buoyed hopes that the town’s coastal waters may also be a breeding ground for the world’s biggest fish.

“The baby whale could have been produced in Donsol’s waters since theoretically a young butanding (local name of a whale shark) could not travel far,” Raul Burce, a World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) officer, said in a phone interview on Tuesday.

Burce said the nature conservation group had been closely tracking through satellite the whereabouts of the endangered whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) in the country. It estimated the whale shark population in the country at 300, of which 120 are in Donsol, one of the most visited tourist spots in Bicol.

The 15-inch long juvenile caught in Donsol in April last year was the smallest known whale shark found in the area, according to Nini Ravanilla, regional director of the Department of Tourism. It could be a day old, she said.

Its discovery has prompted the WWF to study if whale sharks could be bred in the waters off Donsol, Ravanilla said. Whale sharks are thriving in the once sleepy town because of the abundance of krill and other plankton, the usual diet of the gentle giants of the seas.

Ravanilla said the local whale shark interaction tours continued to draw tourists. Last year, registered tourist arrivals reached 101,799 or 21 percent higher than the 84,354 in 2009.