A SHARK’S TALE IN CEBU
Above: Picture of a whale-shark
Sharks have this tendency to hammock fear and malign huge misconceptions about them. They are one of the world’s top predators that have been thriving through the years; amid the hundred hunters that roam the sea and land. They are considered the king of the seas and have remained uncontested for almost 400 million years. The present, unfortunately, shows a different forecast. In just a short time, a few decades ago, the over-fishing and persecution of these creatures have created a situation that would endanger their species that would eventually lead to their extinction.
The increase of number of whale shark encounters verified in Moalboal Cebu, every year, caused a great deal of excitement in the area. Dive centers found in Moalboal such as the Sea Explorers, Neptune, Seaquest, Abyss and others found themselves working together for a common goal – to record and keep track of how accurate each of their sightings was. This project was aptly called: Whale Shark Watch Board.
There are two main groups that have devoted so much of their time for this project. Their dedication to this whale shark research is by far inestimable. These two organizations requests divers who happen to have the good fortune of being able to take some underwater shots and pictures to have it sent to them for the main purpose of being able to study it scientifically.
Mr. Mark Holmberg from the ECOCEAN Whale Shark Photo-ID Library states and explains in his email that: “To help us uniquely identify individual whale sharks from photographs, we just completed work on a pattern-matching system that allows us to scan for other photos of the same shark if we have good left- or right-side shots of the shark’s natural skin patterning. This is an excellent and very possibly more reliable method of tracking these animals than traditional spear-based invasive tagging.”
Since 1998, particularly during the months of January to May, Hammerhead sightings could be witness yearly at the Pescador Island. In the duration of 1998, these whale sightings began to drastically decline; without knowing the reason behind it.
There are those who make the rationalization with the link between the El Nino phenomena that caused the humid temperature change of the sea, the ocean and other parts of the archipelago.
It was considered to be a huge blessing that Moalboal was lucky enough not to be affected by the misfortune of coral bleaching due to the fact that there was a huge depth of Tanon Strait. There was, however, accounts and reports from the people in that area, that they were able to spot large fishing fleets sailing across the Visayas in search of shark meat – which many also considered as one of the factors as to why there was a huge drop of sightings of their beloved Hammerheads.
It is a fact that we have no control over the El Nino tragedy, but we do dare each and every individual to go against the practice of the big time commercial shark fishing fleets to leave these animals alone for the interest of conservation of these magnificent creatures. It is a sad realization that Whale Sharks are constantly in danger from humans. It is reported that hundreds of Whale Sharks are slaughtered literally every year. You see, unlike the predatory shark meat, the whale shark meat is quite safer and much more sought after especially by the Asian culture.
It is the Taiwanese that are known to be the principal culprit – especially for their love for this type of meat. It is aggravating to find out that the fishing fleets are now using full time spotter aircrafts to guide these fishing vessels to the whale sharks in almost every part of the ocean possible. Lately, it has been documented that in Sulawesi, it was the Taiwanese who were reported to be accountable for the mass-murder of thousands of sea creatures such as the whale sharks, dolphins, dugongs and turtles. They used miles of monofilament nets that were stretched all across the Lembeh Straits. Even though this illegal procedure angered the world, especially animal activist everywhere, the offenders got away with minor punishments.
Today, sub-contractors are making use of complex military hardware to practice their mass killing of these animals. The continuous diminishing population of these powerless living creatures will soon face extinction unless we all do our part in counter-attacking these criminals who persists in butchering our sea dwellers.
As hard as it may seem, as an individual, it appears like we cannot do anything about it – always keep in mind therefore, that there is power in numbers. We can do this by helping organizations and groups such as the Shark Trust; by signing in petitions, pressuring our government, letting our voices be heard through the four powerful media tools: the television, radio, print and the World Wide Web, we can make a difference, especially for the coming generations.
