Swimming with the gentle butandings

I am not a very good swimmer, but I have to come to appreciate the underwater view. If it means putting on life vest to keep myself afloat while snorkelling, then so be it.

It has also been my dream to be a scuba diver, but its another one yet to be fulfilled.

Anyway, when the family took the trip to Cebu, we decided to include Oslob whale watching in the itinerary.  It meant getting up and driving early from Cebu city where we were staying. 

The whalewatching was in the tanaw-an, oslob.  My sister initially considered to scuba dive but at the advice of the locals just went with us to snorkel. The cost of snorkelling for locals was PhP 500 per person including the short boat ride and snorkelling gears. 

The experience to swim with those gentle giants had been amazing.
There's a controversy about the way those whale sharks were lured to stay in that area but it's noteworthy that local tourism people were trying to enforce some rules to: 

1.  Remind people to keep away from the whale shark, something i would discover later was not easy thing to do because whale sharks were the ones who made the moves to get closer.

2.  Prohibit touching of whale sharks, though i noticed a couple of the tourguides who's feeding the whaleshark petting them once in a while. The fine by the way for touching the whaleshark was PhP2500.

3.  Prohibit use of sunscreen for snorkellers and use of flash photography

4.  To allow swimming with the whale sharks only between 6 am to 12 noon, which I heard was done to ensure these butandings do not become completely dependent on handfeeding from fishermen.

Sightings of whaleshark at Oslob is currently 100% guaranteed.

by the mouth of the butanding is a small banca.  

moi and the butanding.  i could only hope that my distance from the butanding is farther than how it looks in the pic