Foreign tourists searching for whale sharks rescued at sea

DONSOL, Sorsogon – Bikini-clad backpackers searching for this province's famed whale sharks were rescued at sea last weekend after they swam and drifted several kilometers from shore. "With the current, they could have ended up in Masbate," said Carina Escudero, an underwater cinematographer who was in the boat that picked up the damsels in distress last Saturday near this town famous for the sweet-tempered sea creatures known as butanding in Filipino. The five backpackers, all female Western travelers in their twenties, claimed they didn't have enough money to hire a boat with professional whale shark spotters so they swam and searched for the whale sharks themselves in the searing midday heat. "There's no way they could have swum back to shore against the wind," said Escudero, who helped start commercial whale shark watching in Donsol. "The girls endangered their lives and the ecotourism livelihood of the entire community. One accident will scare away visitors." The rescued travelers registered their names at the Donsol visitors' center as Lisa Honey, Lisa May Loveless, Emery Burks, Kelsey MacDonnell, and Averill Jardine. Three of them were British, one was Australian and the fifth American. Only four of them were wearing life vests, while one of the women was holding on to her companions. It costs P3,500 to hire a boat with spotters for a day of whale shark watching in Donsol. Droves of tourists have begun arriving in Donsol to "interact" with whale sharks, the largest fish in the world. Growing to more than 12 meters, the migratory whale sharks are also gentle giants who don't harm humans and eat only tiny organisms and small fish. Some whale sharks allow snorkelers to swim with them near the surface for up to half an hour. Hunted for their fins and meat, whale sharks are considered "vulnerable to extinction" by conservationists. January was the start of the whale shark-watching season in Donsol, said to host the highest concentration of whale sharks in the world. The season officially ends in May, but the animals can still be sighted in sizable numbers until June. An estimated 22,000 tourists came last year, while more are expected this year as new resorts catering to a more upscale market have opened. Yet, there are still travelers visiting Donsol on a shoestring budget, compelling tourists like the rescued backpackers to risk their lives by swimming into the open sea to search for whale sharks. "The procedure undertaken in Donsol for interaction with whale sharks takes into consideration the safety of both shark and swimmers without compromising the pleasure of viewing the animal," said Dr. AA Yaptinchay, a marine scientist who was among the first to study whale sharks in Donsol. Escudero said she would recommend to local authorities a water use zoning plan that would prohibit swimmers from venturing too far from shore. - Howie Severino/YA,GMANews.TV