'Butanding' The gentle giant of the deep

Whale shark interaction season begins in Donsol

Submitted by: dannyboy!

Whale shark interaction season begins in Donsol

The Philippine Department of Tourism (PDOT) for the Bicol Region has announced the start of the butanding season this month of January until May of this year for the Whale Shark Watching and Interaction tours in the rustic town of Donsol in Sorsogon province.

Bicol Tourism Director Nini Ravanilla confirmed that all roads and transportation as well as accommodations are ready for local and foreign visitors, who would like to interact with the “gentle giants” -- the butanding or whale sharks -- in Donsol, Sorsogon.




Donsol’s pride

Donsol Mayor Salve Ocaya beams with pride as she reveals that the butanding interaction tours by local and foreign visitors has brought about 75% increase in the livelihood of the townsfolk since 2004. “We would like to let people know that Donsol is one of the best known and best equipped places in the world where you can have a “blind date” with one of the ocean’s genuine leviathans. Every butanding interaction will be an experience that is unlike any other and one that will never be forgotten,” Ocaya enthused.

“There has been more than 11,000 visitors who have joined the butanding interaction tours since these have been instituted in 2002. Moreover, boat rentals and registration fees for the butanding interaction tours have reached P 50 million once we add the income from the resorts, restaurants and transport services,” Ravanilla revealed.

Butanding Festival

The municipality of Donsol has also come up with a month-long festival in April to honor the butanding and as thanksgiving for the townsfolk’s additional jobs and livelihood derived from local and foreign visitors’ interaction tours with the “gentle giants”. During the Butanding Festival, the local people and visitors participate in a celebration of the holy mass, motorcade, trade and beverage fair, beer plaza, band concert, marathon and swimming race, regatta, sividan pumpboat race, basketball, mural painting, bingo, fashion show, fireworks display and the butanding extra challenge, where local and foreign participants will compete as to the most number of butanding sightings during the day. There is also a job fair, cooking demonstration, the body watch swimwear and the film showing on how to save the “gentle giants.”

The festival culminates with a regatta exhibition and maritime parade consisting of more than 50 boats with banners and giant images of the butanding along the Donsol River. There is also a street parade along the town’s main thoroughfares consisting of life-size images of the butandings on floats accompanied by village (barangay) delegations, brass bands, drum and bugle corps, and the festival street-dancing contingent winners from other Bicol provinces.

Sorsogon’s accessibility from Manila

Sorsogon is an hour away via excellent roads from Legazpi City, which is turn is 12 hours by land or an hour by air from Manila. Tour packages under “The Philippines: Explore. Experience. Return.” program can be downloaded in the travel planner of the program’s portal www.experiencephilippines.ph, where interested travelers can directly book with agents in the United States and Canada.

For individual travelers, there are several vans for hire at the Legazpi domestic airport as well as passenger vans and public utility buses at the Legazpi City bus terminals going to Donsol, Sorsogon. Resorts in Donsol, which have been accredited by the PDOT, include Amor Farm Beach Resort (mobile phone # 63 917-8233802), Vitton Resort (mobile phone # 63 927-2330364) and Woodland Beach Resort (mobile phone # 63 921-9699544). For more information, check the PDOT website at www.wowbicol.com or through telephone number 63 52 435-0085 and email address dotr5@globalink.net.ph. The Donsol Tourism Office in Dancalan headed by Salvador Adrao, Jr. can also be contacted through mobile phone # 63 927-2330364. Snorkeling gears can be rented from the resorts.
Beyond the butanding experience

After the exhilarating butanding experience, individual travelers may want to visit other places near Donsol like the Tangkulan Mangrove Eco-Tour Park, the magnificent pinnacle rock and coral formations in Catundolan, Nahulugan Falls in Barangay San Rafael, the Grotto Chapel in Barangay San Antonio, the Astillero Shipyard Archeological Site in Barangay Dancalan and the magical firefly watching tour in the evening at a sanctuary along the wide and clean Donsol River.

Tour packages include trips to Bulusan Volcano and Lake, river trekking and swimming and picnic at Bayugin Falls. Or a Sorsogon countryside extension tour consisting of a visit to Mayon Volcano’s 17th century Cagsawa Ruins, the centuries-old baroque Daraga Church, Rizal Beach Resort, San Rafael Bee and Citrus Farm, and the Purok Bacolod Mineral Pools. There is enough time to savor the unforgettable Bicol native delicacies like the pili nut, pinangat and fiery bicol express dish at a local restaurant.

Nature of whale sharks

The whale shark (rhincodon typus) is the world’s largest fish. Known in Donsol as “butanding” and as “balilan,” “kulwano,” “tawiki,” and “toki” in other parts of the Philippines, whale sharks are known to grow to lengths of up to 18 meters, weigh up to 40 tons and live up to more than 100 years.

Whale sharks appear in Donsol waters in considerable numbers between December and May of each year taking advantage of dense food concentration of plankton, krill, small fish, squid and invertebrate larvae. With Donsol as a seasonal feeding ground for whale sharks, scientists and environmentalists have the opportunity to study them more. The whale sharks’ arrival also prompts the host community to provide butanding interaction tours, where visitors have the chance to swim alongside these majestic creatures.

Donsol’s protection for butanding

Despite being massive, whale sharks are really graceful, gentle and innocent. In fact, they are one of the world’s most endangered species. Their numbers are threatened by the export of their meat, skin and fins, which are delicacies in other countries. Through the Fisheries Administrative Order No. 193 of March 1998, the Philippine government banned both killing and harming of whale sharks as well as the export of by-products. The town of Donsol has also protected its whale sharks through guidelines and local ordinances that must be strictly followed by the local community and visitors, whose primary responsibility is to ensure that their actions do not disturb or upset the whale sharks’ natural rhythms as well as to abide by the Code of Conduct in interacting with the whale sharks.