THE BUTANDING EYEBALL REPORT

By Arnel Mirasol
(January 15, 2014. Oslob, Cebu)

Well, it finally happened - my close encounter with the whalesharks or butandings (tuki to the Cebuanos), that is. I am writing in Oslob, Cebu. I and my Papa Nene were in Barangay Tan-awan early yesterday morning. We went straight to the briefing area for the short lecture on the dos and don'ts of whaleshark watching. The briefing was done by a girl who looks like a high schooler to me, but who to my surprise delivered her spiel in straight and correctly-accented English. After paying the 500 pesos snorkeling fee, I was handed my life-vest and was ushered to the boat which will take me to the whale shark watching area about two hundred meters away. Visitors are required to wear life-vests while on the boat, which the competent swimmers can remove when they want to snorkel.

I wasn't able to take pictures underwater because I don't have an underwater camera. You could rent one from the people there, but I chose not to because I find the camera rental fee (P500) rather steep. I don't know about the others, but I also feel short-changed every time I think of the 500 I paid for the mere 30-minutes I spent snorkeling there. That amount of time was too short for a sea freak like me, who can spent hours snorkeling without getting bored. Some whale shark watchers and snorkelers may have felt short-changed, too, especially those who've come all the way from Western Europe, Russia, Korea, and other foreign countries, who are being charged 1000 pesos each. But then again, perhaps, it was only the penny-pincher in me speaking. It's possible that the other snorkelers actually found the snorkeling fee cheap: and if ever they find 30-minutes too short, well, no problem they might say, we'll pay another 500 pesos, or even one thousand, for another 30-minutes of snorkeling time.

Although I was only about two hundred meters away from shore, I can see that I was in deep waters. It was at least 20 feet deep there. I saw in the area where I snorkeled at least four different butandings. There are others circling the other boats. The butandings looked juvenile, because they are just about 15 feet in length. Big Mama, the biggest (she's said to be as big as a bus) and probably the matriarch of the group, wasn't in sight. The butandings are gentle all right. They didn't mind the snorkelers swarming about and only focused on eating the baby shrimps (uyap) provided them.

Brief though it may be, my close encounter with those would-be leviathans was an unforgettable experience all in all for a sea freak - to whom seeing even tiny aquarium fishes in their natural habitat (below) is already worth the hours spent at sea.

Above photo by Dr. Froilan Ocampo, shows me and a dive guide of the Planet Dive Resort in the waters off Anilao, Mabini, Batangas