Whale Sharks of Donsol

Here are a couple shots from my trip to Donsol, Philippines a week ago. The experience is heart pounding to say the least.

We saw over 40 whale sharks in two 1/4 days of cruising around the bay. Scuba equipment and strobes are prohibited in that area. The viz was terrible, the first day was 10 feet max. Three days later the viz cleared up to maybe 20 feet. Ironically it's the nutrients in the water that attracts the animals.

If anybody wants to do this, be prepared to swim hard. You will want a good pair of fins, preferably something that works well at the surface. The guides will grab onto your arm and help you kick to stay ahead of the whale shark. It took me the first day to understand how the whole snorkeling thing worked as well as to assess the lighting situation. The guides and sighters will say "get ready". That means you will be in the water within 30 seconds. It's best to have fins and mask on, camera ready, and you should be sitting on the side of the boat ready to jump. Jumping looks more dangerous than it really is. The chances of banging your head against an outrigger is small, but very intimidating.

I was told by some friends to shoot in automatic mode. I've never shot my Canon 20D underwater in anything but manual. By the second day I choose to use automatic and I think that's really the way to go for these surface shots. There is literally no time to make adjustments because you are kicking like hell.

I saw my guide do some amazing things with the whalesharks. For some, they would consider this molesting the animal, but hey, at least they aren't killing them anymore. They're able to tickle the whaleshark and make them tip over to one side. I saw this with a 45 foot wshark.

An interesting observation that made me feel good was the two days that I went diving offshore, the dive boat would have a sighter at the front of the boat to make sure that we didn't run over any whalesharks.

A small gallery is located at:

http://www.pbase.com/wychen/uwdonsol2006

Great shots Will, and what a great experience this must be. I really like the first one with the whole shark on it. The only thing I would do to improve is try to white balance on the white spots of the shark, this will bring in more contrast and better blues, I think.

Luiz

Very cool. I remember my wife burning half her air in about 5-10 minutes huffing after a whaleshark in the Galapagos. Swimming against current after those creatures really takes luck and/or stamina, along with good eyes to sight the animals before you rocket off to see them.

Interesting about the camera on auto. I almost think I would take a few test shots in raw mode and just fire away, adjusting in PS.

Joe

Somehow I missed this posting. The first shot is really nice! It gives the feeling of the WS coming up from the depths. Also, its a particularly beautiful shark - very healthy looking with great markings.

I was originaly supposed to be going to Donsol in 2 weeks but work got in the way and my friends are still going Now that I see your shots and hear about it I am really depressed. It sounds really fantastic!

Thanks for sharing

Justin I can see Nick and Shawn laughing all the way to Legaspi. Don't feel bad... at least you didn't buy a crappy video camera or a crappy video housing.

Will, did you see 40 individual(different) whalesharks or 40 sightings of the buntanding? You have gotten many people excited and there is a difference between sightings and 40 individual sharks.

On that note, one galapagos liveaboard claimed to have seen over 100 sightings of whalesharks in 1 week. Of course they added what every diver saw individually and put them together plus didn't identify the whalesharks so it could've been one swimming around in circles LOL. Ah marketing!

Hey guys,

20 sightings in half a day is not uncommon in Donsol.

They are always there but it depends on the conditions how many you will get to see.

5 weeks ago when I went it was overcast and rainy... not the best conditions and we saw few.

My group last week saw more than 40 in 3 days incl. a 20min encounter!!!

Make sure you join the firefly canoe trip in Donsol up the river in the evening... It's a nice foto opp. Shrimp fisher push theire nets through the river while wearing a petroleum lamp on the head...

Feel free to contact me if you need any help to arrange the trip...

Cheers from Manila

Torben

Scubadru - you're right there is a difference betweening 40 sightings and 40 different whales. I don't know the exact count, but on the second day we did run into the same whaleshark several times. The whalesharks that we encountered where sized from small to large. The small ones seem to be more skittish and would swim away or dive quickly. I called it quits and the guides forced me back in one last time. I got a special treat and had a double encounter with a pair of whalesharks, very cool.

Every time we spotted one I was encouraged to jump in and swim some more. It did get to the point where I didn't want to see any more. What???

Torben - I'd be interested to hear whether President Arroyo made it to Donsel and actually went out to look at the whalesharks a couple weeks ago. She was suppose to be there on the day we left. There were certainly many people from the UN and an early arrival team of military escorts.

I do agree, the firefly trip is a must do if you've never seen them before. There's a magical light pulse show that they put on when their lights go on and off in synch.

To top this off, the topside landscape during the drive to and from Donsol is very beautiful and lends itself to some nice photo ops.

Hi Will,

will find this out for you, no problem... ;-)

Cheers

Torben

Hey Will,

yes, I can confirm that President Arroyo was swimming with the whalesharks of Donsol on March 18. They saw several whalesharks and had one 30min encounter

She is actually a Open Water Diver...

Cheers

Torben

Justin I can see Nick and Shawn laughing all the way to Legaspi. Don't feel bad... at least you didn't buy a crappy video camera or a crappy video housing. 

Hey Drew, I resemble that remark!

Yup - looking forward to our trip next week. Be nice for a change just to lug camera gear and not a full diving rig as well. I'll report back on quantity and quality - but then again I'm in marketing so you'd better take everything I say with a pinch of salt