Some TERRIBLE news from the Large Marine Vertebrates (LA.MA.VE’s) Project researching the Whale Shark feeding in Tan-awan, Oslob, Cebu.  

It appears that we have our first true victim of the implications of feeding whale sharks.  Whale Sharks being fed for tourism in Tan-awan Cebu have started associating bubbles with food.  One concern researchers (including myself) had here was that feeding the sharks would encourage them to approach other non-feeding boats.  From the propeller scarring on this poor whale sharks face it appears that this has already began.  Sad sad news.  Here’s hoping that “Fermin’s” injuries are not in vain and that Cebu ‘mans up’ and stops these practices.  For the full story on whats happening in Cebu please read the post below taken from La.Ma.Ve’s website (www.lamave.org)   

Propellor Cut on Oslob’s Flagship Whale Shark

Shark P-383, a juvenile male whale shark, known locally as “Fermin” has long been celebrated by the tourist feeding industry in Tan-awan, Oslob. He is probably the longest standing visitor to the feeding area. 

Fermin was one of the first whale sharks identified by researcher Elson Aca on December 2011. Fermin is part of the group of six sharks that have been present, and feeding from boats nearly every day since the beginning of our research in Oslob on March 31st. 

A bar chart showing the daily presence or absence of P-383 (Fermin) in the Tan-awan interaction area. The shark is identified by photo-identification using it’s unique spot pattern and distinguishing features, such as scars. 

He was last seen in the interaction area on Monday, 16th July 2012. At this time, the only scars on his face were the callous’/sores from rubbing against the hulls of the paddle-feeding boats. 

The last clear photo of Fermin’s head was taken on the 11th of July, 2012. The white scars above his eye are typical of the sharks that visit the Tan-awan interaction area frequently.

Fermin was not seen from Tuesday, 17th July to 19th July 2012. This morning, after the first survey, concerned feeders from Tan-awan informed our researchers that Fermin was back , but he wasn’t feeding and he had lots of scars across his face and that his eye might be damaged. 

During the second survey of the day, he was seen feeding from at least two different feeder boats. He has 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. 


This lacerations at regular intervals, with a slight S-shape are indicative of propellor contact. Judging from the size of the wounds, the propellor probably belonged to a small bangka (or pump boat). 

P-383 (Fermin) has 11 parallel, S-shaped lacerations across his face,  indicative of recent propellor contact. Note the cut across the left eye. 

It is not yet possible to determine the extent of the damage to the eye, and whether vision has been compromised. Fermin was observed to ‘roll’ his eye back (a behaviour common to many shark species to protect the eye from damage) today, so still has motor ability. 

Our researchers in Oslob have observed sharks approaching the bubbles of divers, bubbles from the fins of snorkelers, and dive boats moored at the edge of the interaction area, as if approaching for food. The regular whale sharks in Tan-awan associate boats and bubbles with food. Regulations within the interaction area in Tan-awan are strict, no motor boats are allowed inside the area. 

Close up of the fresh wounds.

The feeding interaction stops at 1pm and sharks then leave the interaction area. Outside of the controlled feeding area, they will still associate bubbles and boats with food. Propellors from motorized boats create a trail of bubbles. 

Propellor injuries are a common threat to whale sharks that spend time at the surface feeding on plankton. Many sharks with propellor scars have them on the dorsal fin, or across the back or back of the head, indicating that the boat has run over the shark, probably without realizing it. Fermin’s scars are face-on, it is likely that he approached a propellor boat, as he would a feeding boat. 

We do not know where, or when exactly the incident occurred. 

An increase in propellor scars (though less severe than this) have been observed in Tan-awan’s whale sharks since June. 

Recently, other nearby towns have been experimenting with feeding whale sharks. Moalboal is currently in the process of passing an ordinance for whale shark interaction with the intent to feed. 

Over 60 sharks have been identified by Physalus’ Large Marine Vertebrate Project in the interaction area of Tan-awan. Currently, there are approximately ten sharks seen daily. This is an increase from the six who were seen daily in April, and who are part of the ten now. 

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. 

LAMAVE will continue to work with the LGU and local community of Oslob to collect data and monitor injuries and scarring to work towards more sustainable practices. 

NOTE: Under no circumstances should a person take it upon themselves to treat any kind of wildlife injury. Many animals are allergic to our medicines, and it would either cause further harm or slow down the natural healing process. 

divingdork:

Surprise! One of the Oslob whale sharks sneaking up on the researchers.

It seems things haven’t changed in Oslob…Sam, the project coordinator is seemingly still being sneaked up on by the Sharks….oh how i miss those (controversial) days!!     

Sharks ripping my clothes off, collecting poo and almost throwing up on a jeepeny: my life in a nutshell (please note I don’t actually live in a nutshell-I think things would be a lot less chaotic if I did!). So after surviving my journey from hell from Donsol on the 21st – a 4hour delay in an airport with no food – nearly fainting twice (one for overheating and once from the lack of food – what airport doesn’t have any food or drink on sale in the departures lounge?!? If you said Legazpi – then award yourself 20 points). ….nearly throwing up on a jeepney, posting the most expensive parcel I have ever sent and more or less being molested by a ‘ceres bus’ boy….16.5 hrs later I finally arrived at my new –temporary home. And so just before 1am on the 22nd of May I found myself back in Oslob (-I know who knew I would be back so soon?), tip-toeing back into our blue house and curling up to sleep. Ah sleeeeep, how I have missed you. 4.5hrs later I was awake again (if you can call my zombie state in the morning awake?) preparing my things to go sharking and to help out with some volunteer training…bring on the whale sharks! I just can’t seem to get away from them!? Coming back to Oslob after a week, really showed just how fast the sharks are changing. Firstly there are more sharks (in the past 2 days we’ve seen 2 new individuals) and what’s more things are getting crazier. On Thursday, DE, a 7m ish male rammed into me while I was swimming in open water. It scared the hell out of me. The only warning I had was my fin hitting something, but before I could even turn around I found myself being bashed and rolled over the top of a 7m shark!! He was so close to me that his sandpaper-like, placoid scales only went and ripped my leggings…and while it felt like I’d been hit by a brick wall, luckily there was no lasting damage…in fact there wasn’t even any blood from the scrapes. Phew!! But what a palava and WHAT A SHOCK, my heart was beating like a drum and my legs felt like jelly, wibble wobble wooooo. This is one of the major problems happening – the sharks are seemingly following the bubbles snorkelers are making when they swim – we presume they’re associating the bubbles with food- and then bam swimmers suddenly find they are no longer alone as a shark bus has just ploughed right into them. We seem to be getting the brunt of this, presumably because we are the ones doing most of the swimming – most tourists are very poor swimmers and are often holding onto boats. As well as the ramming and free swimming we’re seeing, we’ve also seen a fair few sharks pooing! I know, how exciting!? :p ha ha…unfortunately while most of the others have seen a shark poo, I, despite my best efforts of hanging around shark bums, have yet to see this. Steph as well as seeing this spectacle, took it one step further, when one morning we saw her swimming back to shore with her arm in the air-what is it, what have you got? “POO!!” - “No way- YOU HERO!!” I think this is it I am officially a shark geek. Who else gets excited over poo? Well apart from monkeys? So it was nice to be back in Oslob, collecting shark poo. Yes ok, so I lost a few clothes – some to the sharks, but some unfortunately to someone else…yes somehow I lost two rash vests in 2 days – I think someone accidentally took one, but the other, well that’s a strange one…it seems some one in Oslob is collecting my clothes…adding to the collection of things of mine that seemingly disappeared last time I was there….it’s all a little bit creepy…. Anyway I’ve now left, so has Anna the original project researcher and as of this afternoon Steph will also have left, thus leaving Sam to man up and lead the boys! And so where to next? Well I’m writing this post crammed on a boat heading to Bohol – the next island in my Philippine adventure. With me are three Hong Kong volunteers, which I have some how been roped into chaperoning to LA.MA.VE’s base on Bohol….my next home for a little while. On the 31st we will all be prancing around as Dolphins and other marine mammals in order to celebrate Bohol’s Dolphin festival….but until then, I’m not quite sure what is going down. One thing for sure is that it’s time I got sorted on the next chapter of my journey…..one that begins in June in Southern Leyte….but that’s a story for another time….