Barangay Councilor Eustaquio Amolat of Juagdan in Ubay town and fellow fishermen were suprised at around 2:00 AM last Thursday (September 17), they noticed found a 22-ft long whale-shark on their gill net.
Upon arriving in Guintaboan, the fishermen radioed the local coastal resource management (CRM) coordinator of the town to report the incident.
Ubay Mayor Eutiquio Bernales personally led the responding team composed of the CRM coordinator Alpios Delima and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources representative Roselle Hilot came to the whale-shark’s rescue.
After the team documented the incident, they released the whale shark out to sea at around 11 AM of the same day.
According to wikipedia, a whale shark is the largest fish and is called so because it is a shark as big as a whale. Whale sharks can grow up to 60 feet in length and could weigh as much as 15 tons. Mostly found in tropical and warm oceans, the whale shark, or butanding, like a shark has an unusually large mouth but feeds on mostly planktons, microscopic plants and organisms by filtering the water it siphons.
Usually seen in Bohol during the peak months of summer marine migration, these pelagic whale sharks usually swim with a pod of whales passing at the seas south of Bohol, lingering near Pamilacan Island to feed before continuing on their journey to the Tubbataha reefs. (PIA)
