Since I got back in Cebu I been hearing about whale sharks sightings in Oslob. Its a 3 hours drive down south of Cebu province from the city. This place is not famous and no one would hear about Oslob until the whale sharks started appearing in shallow water of this sleepy town sometime in September last year.
Apparently, during this time of year it is the season for the fish locally known as "bolinao" or the "Philippine Anchovy". During the bolinao season, the local fishermen would group together to catch "bolinao" with their big fishnet. What happened this time in Oslob was, when the fishermen were catching bolinao, the whale sharks were pitching in from their catch. Most of what they have left of the bolinao were half eaten. So, the fishermen decided to have 2-4 fishermen assigned everyday to feed the whale sharks while the rest catches bolinao and they split the catch equally amongst themselves. They went on like this for a couple of days until one day, 2 of the smaller whale sharks followed their boat to shallow water thinking that they were following the source of food. This was the start of this amazing whaleshark phenomenon in shallow waters of Oslob that stirred Cebu since it was sighted.
I drove there with Loquito, since we were already in Moalboal doing some scuba diving. Although I've seen whale sharks before but the excitement of seeing this huge creatures again in my home province is more than exciting - it's ecstatic. So we drove after lunch so we could still do one more scuba diving before leaving Moalboal. I have not tried driving to Oslob from Moalboal before and I haven't been there in a long time so I was not really sure how to get there, but it looked like there was only one road according to goggle map.
We drove about 2 hours and got there at about almost sunset. It was easy to find, we just followed the signs and definitely there is only one road to get there - we never got lost! Apparently the whale sharks are gone after lunch time, so there wasn't a chance of us to see it when we arrived. We decided to stay over night and head to sea first thing in the morning. There were many cottages for rent overnight and we found one by the beach where the whaleshark watching happens. Aaron Beach Resort. It was a house but converted into an overnight hostel sort of, 3 rooms, cable TV, kitchen, dining and they have a dive shop. I was told it is owned by an Australian guy married to a local lady, but they prefer to live in Australia and only come for vacation in Oslob. The care taker of the house were very friendly and accommodating, we were also allowed to cook if we want to, otherwise they will cook for us and charge accordingly. It was cheap either way.
At the break of dawn, we were already awake, too excited to let any minute pass us by, we got up and had breakfast with the guys working at the house. Then we were led to get tickets to watch or snorkel with whalesharks. Tickets vary depending if you are a local and foreigner. HAHAHA, I had the biggest laugh. I got me a local ticket while my companions were made to pay 50% more than I did. But to be honest I wasn't proud of this. People should enjoy this at the same price regardless, the experience will be the same for any of us no matter how much you paid for it at the end of the day. But anyway, they were just happy to be able to see this huge creatures and didn't really mind if they paid 10 times more. It is an experience to be had, I must say.
So, we paid and got our tickets, we were given our snorkels and lifejackets. We were told to get on a native boat that took us about 5 minutes, which we could have had just walked on the beach to the venue for the whaleshark watching briefing conducted by the local government. The briefing took about 5 minutes, of which we were told the do's and don'ts. Somehow, I was glad they implemented something like that, it's good to know that this is not just a sightseeing but also some sort of a learning experience as well as the local government was taking care of those huge creatures. After the briefing we got on the same boat and headed towards the group of whalesharks being fed by the other boatmen. Our boat guide, was very strict with the lifejacket while on the boat. I tried all excuses to be exempted but it didn't work with him, which was I think good for most visitors that doesnt know how to swim, at least whatever happens they will float for sure! I was surprised by how close we were to the whalesharks, we can almost touch it, but as per the briefing we were not allowed to, so we refrained from doing so. At the same time, I felt bad that those gigantic creatures hits the paddles or the bancas (wooden boat) when they try to surface to feed themselves with krill that the fishermen were feeding them with. There were 14 whalesharks in the area and I was overwhelmed that we had 5 just around us. Even if I've seen them before, it is still something to get excited. Amazing experience.
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