Whale Sharks- Did you need another reason to visit the Philippines?
While there are numerous boating spots around the islands to spot or possibly swim with whale sharks, the most accessible and reliable is definitely Oslob on the island of Cebu. Here the whale shark tours operate 363 days of the year, are incredibly affordable, and you can "count" on seeing them. The reason why? Unlike other whale shark sighting spots, the tours in Oslob feed the whale sharks.
Ethically is this ok? Good question and it's one I read up about a lot in preparation of my visit. As with all animal tourism activities, it's always a good idea to read up on and decide if the activity you want to participate in is ecologically ethical. Feeding the whale sharks does create potential dependency, over socializes the whales with humans, and diverts them from what used to be set migratory habits. What I took comfort in was knowing that the tours here had VERY strict rules on not touching or swimming too close to the sharks, reportedly has marine scientists studying and keeping an eye on the sharks in the area, and that the sharks are wild and FREE to roam where they may. No cages, holding tanks, nets, notta! More on that later.....
Seeing the whale shark's mouth skimming along the top of the water
So would I recommend this tour? YES! If you have it on your bucketlist to see or swim with whale sharks I would as long as the rules and regulations don't change. SO more on our experience...
Riding the trike to the whale sharks before 6 AM.
We had heard that the best time was as soon as it opens to see the sharks and with less crowds. The tours are all a flat rate of 1,000 pisos (no matter who you book it through) but you will see extra costs based on transportation. We were about 8.5 km at our resort from the whale shark watching area and we paid 1175 pisos/ person. We potentially could have paid a trike driver less to get us there but as we wanted to get there EARLY, we didn't want to stress about it so we just booked it through our resort. Which turned out to be great! Not only were we picked up promptly at 5:30 (without sighting any other drivers on the road... so flagging a cheaper trike would've been a challenge) but our driver also had pre-purchased our tickets for us so when we got there and saw the horrendous line already at opening, we got to skip right through to the information debriefing and selecting our snorkels with only a 20 minute wait before we were out on the water.
The mass of people in life jackets waiting to board boats at the start
I definitely found the extra 125 pisos worth it for this luxury and our driver/ tour guide (?) was very helpful in telling us where to go where we probably would've been a little lost other wise.
The debriefing area
After selecting your snorkel (if you pay for the swimming option) you wait for your number to be called and then you go to assigned canoe. About 10 people fit in pretty small canoes and you have to sit 2 people to seat, but not to worry! It's a very short ride out to where the water is deeper. We were maybe the 10th boat out and we hooked to the line. At this point your 30 minutes start, you can take off your life jacket, and hop right in!
All of the boats assemble in a semi circle while the canoes with the feeders are on the inside. They slowly move in front of all the boats dropping fish so that the sharks tail along and everyone gets to see them! They do feed them PRETTY CLOSE to you so there were multiple times the sharks large body or tail would get REALLY close to us and we had to get out of the way but it was also insanely cool to see them get that close. The semi circle setup also created pretty cool scenarios in that the sharks would swim in and out of the area to eat UNDER you... Twice we would be watching the shark they were feeding in front of us and would look down to see one swim RIGHT under our feet. (Thus try your best NOT to kick a lot when treading water and always be aware of what's under you)
All in all the experience was AMAZING, and my only regret was not having a go pro as I battled with my phone in one of those water proof sleeves almost the entire time. (so I got next to no great photos with only 1 decent video) Too soon they were calling us back into the boat and we were headed back to shore. There they have showers to rinse the salt water (and potentially fish guts from the sharks eating) off before we caught our ride back to the resort.
photo showing my hand and how close they were getting to us. and don't worry I was in no way trying to touch it.. this photo isn't great because I was trying to get away from it!
I was pretty devastated to not get that many cool photos but regardless of the documentation, it was still one of the most incredible swimming experiences I've had.
The MOST incredible sunrise I've ever seen on the way to the whale sharks!
We had almost all day left to relax and explore Oslob! So for lunch we walked into town and tried the "fancy" restaurant our driver from the previous day had recommended. The food was good but let's be honest, the pork was literally the same as the street food at twice the cost. The watermelon shake I had on the other hand was amazing. Then we spent some more time sitting in the sun pool side and hanging out around our waterfront resort.
Passing palm trees on our way to swim with the sharks
Not too many people out on the road at 5:30 AM
Relaxing in a hammock chair the day away
My incredible view from my chair- read some books, took some naps, drank some smoothies
"fancy" restaurant lunch
Day 6 Costs:
Swim with Whale sharks tour: $22
Morning smoothie at hotel: $2
Lunch BBQ and watermelon smoothie: $3.35
Day 6 total Costs: $27.35
Up Next: The rest of Day 6, exploring the city center of Oslob!