US envoy gets his wish — close encounter with whale sharks

DONSOL, Sorsogon — After a memorable close encounter with whale sharks here, US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone is now singing praises for this coastal town and urging foreign tourists to come and visit.

The US envoy admitted that it had been his silent wish to swim with a whale shark since he was a child. Now that dream has come true.

Schools of whale sharks come here regularly to feed on plankton and tiny shrimps in the Donsol Strait this time of the year.

The sea was blue and placid last Saturday morning, while the cool mountain air slowly gave way to the warm air from the sea. The hazy mountain contour of Masbate’s Ticao Island loomed in the horizon.

On board Sandra, a motorized, wooden-hulled banca, Ricciardone and Sen. Richard Gordon, along with their staffers and members of the World Wide Fund, set out to sea.

Wearing wet suits and armed with snorkels, the two, accompanied by experienced interaction officers, dived six times and got a glimpse of the marine species each time.

"It was superb and excellent," Ricciardone told The STAR as he stood barefoot in the sand in his dark blue wet suit after disembarking from the banca, waves lapping at his feet.

He recalled that he had wanted to swim with whale sharks after seeing a painting of one of the marine giants in a children’s book when he was young.

"When I came to the Philippines and learned that Donsol was the best place in the world to see them, I put this at the top of my long list of ‘must see’ phenomena in this amazing country," he said.

A Safe Place

Having gotten his wish, Ricciardone urged tourists to come to the Philippines despite the reported threats from terrorist groups.

In fact, he came to Donsol despite the clash between government troops and communist rebels in Barangay Alin here last March 12, which left a soldier and a civilian dead and another soldier wounded.

"You know you cannot spend your life in your pajamas stuck in your bedroom because some fanatics somewhere are going to plant a bomb. You gotta live. The Philippines is a great place to live," the US ambassador said.

"These people (the terrorists) are screaming and yawning and giving a false impression of your country," he added. "There are 130,000 Americans who live in this country and love it. We have a large embassy, we all love being here and I, being the ambassador, love visiting all these sites. I have a long list of (places) I still want to see in the Philippines."

"But these threats are always out there; you make your judgments," he said. "Donsol is a perfectly wonderful place to (visit)... The Philippines is a good place to live. Don’t live in fear. Live! I love to come back."

When word got out that whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) were regularly sighted here every summer since 1997, the municipality immediately put up a whale shark interaction program for tourists.

It also passed a resolution declaring the coastal town a whale shark sanctuary to protect the mammals.

But protecting the whale sharks from pouchers was not enough as the gentle mammals were caught in fishnets and slaughtered for food and profit.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), with the help of the World Wide Fund (WWF), a global conservation organization, spearheaded the conservation and preservation efforts.

"To protect the species, conservation efforts must also focus on its habitat," said Ruel Pine, WWF manager of the community-based ecotourism and coastal resource management project.

To protect the habitat though, he said efforts "must be strongly linked with food security and economic opportunities compatible with resource management."

As a result, the whale sharks were protected, but illegal fishing in municipal waters persisted with the use of a fine mesh net locally called pagulong, which does not discriminate the small from the large fish.

But thanks to the ecotourism business spawned by the whale sharks, Donsol is now moving from being a fourth-class municipality like Casiguran, Castilla, Juban, Magallanes and Matnog.

Sorsogon has 15 towns: five, fifth-class; seven, fourth-class; and three, third-class. Donsol has 51 barangays.

Ricciardone said the USAID has a lot of programs in the Philippines, including one on coastal resource management.

"This is one of the best and we help train people and organize communities to protect what they have. And so when you build up tourism, you will not ruin it. At the same time, you do it in a sensible and environmentally sensitive way," he said.

Gordon, who came here in 2003, said he invited Ricciardone for the whale shark encounter.

Sustainable Ecotourism

For his part, Gordon said he is more concerned about the sustainability of the whale shark tourism as more and more tourists flock to Donsol.

"What is most important is that we start coming down with the rules making it a quality tour and making sure that the surroundings don’t get battered..." he said.

Concerned that the interaction puts a stress on the whale sharks, Gordon proposed what he described as "whale shark interaction by appointment."

When the number of tourists gets bigger, he suggested that tour operators can divide the group — one interacting with the whale sharks, and the other going manta ray diving, island-hopping in nearby Masbate or firefly watching in the Ogod River at night.

He suggested the construction of a small airport in Donsol so rich tourists can fly in on board private aircraft.

"There must be a master plan for the tourism development here," Gordon said. "Is there solid waste management? Is the electricity and water supply adequate?"

Walking barefoot on the gravel path of the Woodland Resort, Ricciardone said, "This is a great place and we love this human place — not only for its pretty mountain and beaches. Boracay has pretty beaches but we don’t see people preserving what they have. It’s not as spiritual an experience that we all see here in Donsol."

For his next visit, the envoy’s plans? Explore the manta rays in Masbate’s Ticao Pass and climb Albay’s 2,640-meter Mayon Volcano.