CEBU, Philippines - A 20-foot long whale shark locally known as “butanding” was caught trapped in a fish pen in Sitio Looc II, Barangay Bato, Toledo City Monday afternoon.
The whale shark estimated to weigh 800 kilos was released back into the sea by the fisherman who owns the fish pen and the officials of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office in Toledo City.
Police Officer 1 Joel Alqueza of the Toledo City Police Office said that the whale shark was trapped at around 5:00 p.m. in the 50-meter fish pen owned by Eddie Bubuli. Alqueza said that the fisherman, at first, thought that he only caught a big fish. Bubuli did not immediately recognize that it was a whale shark until Tuesday morning.
The fisherman reported his catch to CENRO, which assisted him in releasing the sea mammal back into the sea at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday. — (FREEMAN)