Gentle Giants

Last January 5 on our Biology class, we had a film viewing and our teacher asked us to make a reaction paper. So here it is:

Butanding, or commonly known for Whale Shark. It is the biggest and the largest fish in the world with no known predators, except for humans, a peaceful and harmless creature. It is widely living in all tropical and warm-temperate seas. In addition, this creature is close to extinction.

My grandmother once told me that Butandings are swimming freely at their small town, somewhere in Bohol decades ago. She said that these creatures are many in number. But because of not having any proper guidance for the people in their place in caring for Butandings, its number went fast decreasing until it reached to the point that they didn’t saw any whale shark again. I was not convinced at that time about her story, but after she showed me a picture of her sitting at the back of the creature I was stunned but somehow heartbroken. Heartbroken to the fact that, this harmless creature was abused and was overexploited by human being.

In the video, while watching a whale shark swimming smoothly in the ocean made me react accordingly. Its graceful movement through the water made me wants to swim with it for the rest of my life. I then imagined what it feels like being swallowed with his gigantic mouth and what it looks like inside its stomach.

The town of Donsol in Albay is famous for its Butandings. It can help the town’s tourism grow, and yet we can’t stop people from seeing those precious ones. But the problem is, if we allow tourism develop and to ruin their habitat, it can lead to overexploitation. Maybe it will repeat the same thing that happened that my grandmother told me and the worst part is, we can no longer see how beautiful these gentle giants are. Also, in the video the people of Donsol are still fishing even though they are not allowed and still using prohibited fishing nets. If it still goes on, these factors might be the reason for the whale sharks to leave the area.

            Generally, we all need tourism in our place for us to develop, however if this will be the reason for the whale sharks to extinct, then maybe we can say no to the fast growing tourism. We need to choose one, and we need to make the right choice.