Good morning and welcome to ES Patrol, live in Manila.

Today, we are to witness an exclusive report by Kyla Kiunisala and an insightful piece of knowledge from our guest scientist Dr. Duran.

I’m Kyla Kiunisala and today we’re at Oslob, Cebu, home of the famous and well-renowned whale-shark watching tourist attraction.

Here you can see multiple whale-sharks interacting with various people, divers, feeders and tourists

from around the world that have come to see the alluring and fascinating creatures,

but what had happened for the whale-sharks to have gathered at this specific side of the world?

We will come to that later.

For now let us look at the weather forecast. Renzo?

Thank you Kyla and here in today’s weather forecast:

Here as you can see in the NCR that it’s partly cloudy with temperature reaching only as high as 32 degrees celsius.

And in here at somewhere here in the Visayas region, temperature only reaches as high as 28 degrees especially in the cities and provinces in this region, including Cebu.

Thank you once again and Kyla, back to you.

Thank you Renzo, and now we’re back with the topic of the whale-sharks and why in all places in the world they would be in Oslob at this time of year.

Oslob, Cebu is a small municipality in the southern tip of Cebu Island, Philippines.

It encompasses 21 barangays or villages, including where the whale shark tourist attraction is based, Tan-awan.

As the largest fish in the sea, the magnificent and gentle whale weighs up to 20 tons.

Whale sharks are the biggest living fish, but their elusive nature makes it almost impossible for scientists to learn more about their migration patterns and reproductive habits.

The whale sharks had kept appearing in Oslob multiple times when the seasons change, but they only came in small numbers and most if not all of them would leave after less than a month.

But when a fisherman named Jerson Soriano, started feeding a whale shark with “uyap” or baby shrimps after it continuously bumped its snout on his bangka, more whale sharks came to the area after the feeding.

Their length varies from 2 to 6 meters.

The largest measures 9 meters.

Whale-sharks being the creatures they are today have no certain migration pattern that they follow,

so the recent increase in whale-sharks may be exciting, but it affects many of the sea life in the area which leads us to the question:

Why are they here?

Thankfully, we have an expert we can consult on this.

His name is Dr. Julian Raymund Duran, a marine biologist and will be the one answering the big questions.

So, Julian what do you think have brought these stunning creatures here of all places?

There are many factors that supposedly affects the migration patterns of whale-sharks.

I say ‘supposedly’ since we scientists have more questions than answers.

What we do know is that these whale sharks are highly nomadic and they always look for the waters that are not to cold nor hot; they look for the ones that are just right.

They also look for places filled with food that they can digest and eat.

Because of these things, whale-sharks started to visit Oslob more since the temperature of the waters around are in their preferred range:

26 to 30-degree Celsius.

And the feeders there have been feeding them food that they can eat and digest which leads them to stay near the island and its waters.

So, in the end these whale-sharks have come to the Oslob because of humans changing the environment around them,

causing them to think they’re a constant source of food which makes the whale-sharks surround the boats and the waters around them.

Thank you Dr. Duran for your insight on this topic, but sadly that’s all the time we have left.

Thank you for coming and good morning.