Oslob Whale Shark Encounter Whale Shark Tour Cebu Philippines Whale Shark swimming snorkeling Whale Sharks Philippines

8 Dec

Top 10 Misconceptions about the Oslob Whale Shark Snorkel Tour

Do you want to swim with the Oslob Whale Sharks? Join us for our Whale Shark Encounter?

Every day we have guests arriving who are anxious and exited to swim with the Whale Shark Snorkel Tour in Oslob. However many guests arrive with misinformation about what’s really happening at the Whale Shark Tour.

So lets see if we can’t straighten some of them out.

Top 10 Misconceptions about the Whale Shark Snorkel Tour in Oslob:

They are Whales.
1. False: They breath using gills, so Whale Shark are in fact a shark.
They are penned in like a zoo.
1. False! All the Whale Sharks at the Oslob Whale Shark Snorkel tour are wild animals and come and go as they please. The floats you see on the surface are merely marking the area for motorized boats to stay away.
Whale Sharks have teeth and will eat humans
1. False: While Whale Sharks do have huge mouths but they are not designed to eat humans, nor do they want to. Their main diet Consists of shrimp, plankton, krill, fish eggs and very small fish. They are not designed to eat anything larger.
Feeding Sharks stops sharks from naturally foraging for food.
1. False: The amount of shrimp fed to Whale Sharks (or fish fed in other shark feeds) is not enough to sustain a shark. They must still forage during the rest of the day for the total amount of food necessary.
Feeding Whale Sharks keeps them from migrating.
1. The majority of Whale Sharks naturally migrate from feeding zones to mating areas and maybe even birthing zones. In fact out population of larger adult sharks does change, but the smaller Juvenile sharks tend to stick around.
Whale Sharks have to migrate to stay healthy.
1. The Whale Sharks found in Oslob year round are not a unique occurrence. There is a population of sharks located in Africa’s Mafia Island that have shown they don’t all need to migrate.
The boat motors at the Whale Shark feeding area are a danger to the sharks.
1. While it is true that boat propellers are a danger to Whale Sharks, it’s not at the feeding area. The reason is simple, all the boats at the feed are paddled using wooden oars, not motors.
They are there to swim with any time of day.
1. Nope, when the feeding stops at 12 noon the sharks go on their merry way. In fact many of the sharks leave before the feeding stops, so the best time to go is when the Oslob Whale Shark Snorkel tour begins.
Whale Sharks love country music.
1. This is actually not a misconception. Whale Sharks love Jimmy Buffett and can often be found jamming in Key West when Jimmy Buffett is playing, sipping on margaritas. (OK, this is not real but we had to see if you were paying attention before we made it to our last and most important misconception.)
Swimming with the sharks at the Whale Shark Snorkel Tour in Oslob is Bad.
1. We ultimately leave this one up to the guests. We have our belief that the Whale Shark Snorkel tour provides many benefits that out weight the negatives. Some of the benefits include (but not limited to) providing a larger source of income and employment to an area that historically has a high unemployment rate and also a knock-on effect for the entire economy of Cebu. It encourages the local villagers, Filipino citizens and visitors to advocate for the protection of Whale Sharks and reduces Whale Shark fishing in many countries increasing the Whale Shark population. To us, these are powerful positive effects for having a few extra whale sharks stick around throughout the year.