Water beauties in Oslob
WHEN a few Miss Universe candidates went to watch the whale sharks in Oslob yesterday, they waded into a controversy that hasn’t really been settled.
Environmentalists had pleaded with the candidates not to swim with the whale sharks, perhaps in the hope that the high-profile guests would help send out the message that the activity needs more safeguards.
Photos of the visit show that the candidates went out in a banca to view the whale sharks. A few got into the water for a better look at these spectacular creatures. To be fair, it was the tourism department that brought the candidates there. Of course, the tourism department wanted to show off an activity that, in the last five years, has fed a tourism boom and created jobs in Oslob town.
But thanks to non-government organizations like Physalus, among others, we know that these interactions carry a cost and that these costs—unlike propeller wounds—aren’t always easy to see. Research on how whale shark watching activities in Oslob affect the health, behavior, safety and migration patterns of these whale sharks is ongoing. That’s why, when the activity first gained social media attention and drew more visitors to Oslob, environmentalists already made recommendations to better regulate the interaction zone.
How well these recommendations are implemented is entirely up to local authorities.
Most activities that help local communities make a better living deserve support. And southern Cebu’s tourism communities need extra support this year to minimize the impact of three foreign governments’ advisories that asked their nationals to avoid going to southern Cebu, if they can.
Yet even without those advisories, we need to take the long view in Oslob’s handling of its tourist attraction. How, for example, is the whale shark watching ecotourism project in Donsol, Sorsogon different from that in Oslob? What did the community in Sorsogon do that it has earned approval for its practices, while the whale shark watching in southern Cebu continues to worry environmentalists?
It’s always a challenge, choosing between immediate gains (like food on more Oslob families’ tables) and long-term ones (the protection and growth of whale shark populations). Will we learn to do right by Oslob’s giant beauties?