Residents ordered not to touch whale shark spotted in Manila Bay

Manila: Residents and fishermen were ordered not to touch the whale shark, also called butanding, which was recently spotted in Manila Bay, a TV report said.

"Just let it be. If it finds nothing else to eat, it will leave (Manila Bay) on its own," Dr. Lem Aragones, a professor at the University of the Philippines Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology, told InterAksyon, the online site of Channel five.

The whale shark eats anchovies, small shrimps, and microscopic plankton, all of which might have attracted the whale shark at the Manila Bay on Thursday, said Aragones.

"It may have just returned due to a spurt in favorable conditions (at the Manila Bay)….The flow of the productive waters (at the bay) might have been just right for the butanding's feeding ground (at the time)," said Aragones.

He did not categorically say if the whale shark's visit at the Manila bay augured well for efforts of local government leaders to rehabilitate their respective coastal area facing the South China Sea, to help fight pollution at the Manila Bay.

Plastic products and nails were found in the stomach of a 17-foot female whale shark that died at Manila Bay's breakwater in 2009.

Whale sharks are found in the plankton-rich waters of Donsol, Sorsogon in the Bicol region, southern Luzon, and in Visayas, central Philippines.

Donsol holds ‘Butanding Festival' from last week of April to first week of May.