Whale sharks lure more tourists to Legazpi City

LEGAZPI CITY — The giant marine mammal whale sharks known as butanding continue to lure hundreds of tourists and local residents to this city’s shorelines, prompting local officials here to start rigid training of divers and guides in anticipation of yet another tourist attraction apart from the lava-spewing Mayon volcano.

Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal said at least 20 divers and another 20 tourist guides have already started training under Omar Nepomuceno, the dive master on whale shark interaction in Donsol, the Sorsogon town famous for its butanding sightings and after which a digital movie was made.

Rosal said he had also conducted informal meetings with the local residents of the coastal barangays where the gentle mammals are frequently sighted, to give them tips on how to deal with tourists and how to keep the whale sharks in the coastal waters of the city.

"We asked their participation in dealing with the tourists and making the butandings stay by inflicting no harm on these gentle giants," Rosal told The STAR.

Julian Arienda, chairman of Barangay Bigaa where the whale sharks are often sighted off its coastal waters, said that their council had already agreed to put up a secretariat to document the arrival of local and foreign tourists who would be interacting with the giant mammals.

"The number of those who are visiting our barangay continues to increase from tens to about a hundred during the first weeks of news about the butanding here spread. Now they are numbering from hundreds to close to a thousand in the last two weeks," Arienda said, adding that even the relatives of his constituents have been calling from abroad to verify whether news about the butanding in their barangay is true.

He also said that the whale sharks which at first were only sighted before 7 a.m. and after 4 p.m. two to three times a week, have now started to show themselves off anytime almost everyday.

"And they are really prancing and doing other forms of exhibitions to the delight of the applauding and shouting onlookers," Arienda said, noting that these gentle giants’ antics were being viewed as near as five meters from shore.

Rosal and Arienda said that the trooping of these onlookers to the shoreline could be attributed to the fact that this is the first time that a whale shark could be viewed at a close distance without having to venture far from shore.

"Imagine just by standing beside the shoreline, you could have a clear view of the whale sharks. I think this is the first time this has happened," the officials said.

Non-government organizations (NGOs) and civic clubs have also started to organize youths to help clean the shorelines for a token amount in order to attract more tourists, the officials here also noted.

The beaming of giant spot lights on coastal waters where the whale sharks are sighted and putting up of viewing decks are also being considered by the city government as part of promoting butanding as another tourism attraction not only here but in the entire province.