Whale shark trade thrives in Cebu

CEBU City, the foremost port in

Southern Philippines, is emerging as

the transshipment point of banned

whale shark meat.

No one would have known it until on Jan. 15 when 64 boxes

slipped through the Mactan-Cebu International Airport and

were loaded on a plane bound for Taiwan.

There was nothing unusual detected in the shipment. The

cargo, listed as lapulapu fish packed in ice, had documents

from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources-National

Quarantine Service.

But several days later, BFA personnel in Cebu received a cable

from Taiwanese authorities informing them that the boxes

contained whale shark meat.

And on April 8, the Visayas-based Presidential Anti-Organized

Crime Task Force intercepted a ton of whale shark meat loaded

in a 20-foot container van also bound for Taiwan.

PAOCTF operatives arrested four Boholano fishermen. The

confiscated meat was given to inmates of the Cebu City and

provincial jails who found it tasty.

The slaughter, sale, and export of whale shark meat was banned

by the Department of Agriculture last year.

Now the battle to save the whale sharks (Rhincodon typus), the

world's largest fish, has shifted from Donsol, Sorsogon, to Cebu

City and the faraway island of Pamilacan in Bohol province.

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Cebu City has

become a major transshipment point for whale shark meat

exported to Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

Every week chunks of fresh whale shark meat are smuggled

through Cebu's international airport.

Known as Tufo shark to Chinese gourmets, whale sharks are

prized for their white meat which are said to have great medicinal

value. Its liver oil or squalene is sold as popular, high-prized

food supplement.

The DA imposed a ban on the slaughter, selling, transport and

export of whale sharks in March 1998. The penalty is P500 to

P5,000 or imprisonment of six months to four years or both.

DA Fisheries Administrative Order No. 193 which was signed

by then Agriculture Secretary Salvador Escudero also imposed

a P5,000 administrative fine on firms found trafficking whale

sharks and manta rays. They also faced cancellation of their

licenses.

Gentle creatures

Every year between January and March, whale sharks in

schools of 50 to 90, come to the waters between Cebu, Bohol,

and Northern Mindanao to feed on plankton, tiny organisms in

the sea.

Whale sharks can weigh up to 15 tons and reach 15 meters in

length. Despite their size, they are gentle sea creatures and have

been known to allow humans to ride on their backs or swim

alongside them while holding the fish's fins.

Few studies have been made on the migratory route of the

whale shark and why they prefer the waters of Cebu, Bohol, and

Northern Mindanao.

Despite the ban on the slaughter of these gentle sea creatures,

the WWF said the trafficking of whale shark meat continued

from Pamilacan Island and Cebu City.

Joselino Baripua, WWF project coordinator, said a group of

Cebuano businessmen led by a certain Steve Lee, owner of a

karaoke bar along Mango Avenue, this city, is the biggest

buyer of whale shark meat from Pamilacan Island.

The Inquirer tried to contact Lee in his karaoke bar to get his

side but was told the businessman was out of the country.

According to scientists at the University of San Carlos Marine

Biology Department, caught whale sharks are cut to pieces in

Cebu City's Taboan Market and smuggled among shipments of

abalone, lapulapu and other fish species for export.

''It won't be easy to spot it among so many boxes that pass

through the airport,'' said Jeffrey Cortes, head of the BFAR

Quarantine Service in Cebu.

Cortes said smugglers resorted to tampering with official

documents. He said the Jan. 16 illegal shipment, for example, had

a ''doctored'' certification order issued by the quarantine service.

The shipment stated that the shipment was lapulapu fish and

not whale shark meat.

Cortes said when they checked on the Cebu shipper ''Suan

Marine Products'' at its office address on Archbishop Reyes

Avenue, Cebu City, the firm turned out to be non-existent.

According to BFAR, the sale of whale shark meat has earned an

estimated P4 million for the 1,500 residents of the small island of

Pamilacan, an hour's ride from the town of Baclayon in Bohol.

Dr. Filipinas B. Sotto, head of the University of San Carlos

Marine Biology Department, said Pamilacan fishermen who

hunted the fish in groups could earn from P70,000 to P100,000

every season.

''It's the livelihood of the entire Pamilacan community,'' said

Sotto.

''Women would take care of drying the skin while the men cut

them into chunks. The entire community is involved,'' she noted.

Whale hunters

For over 100 years, the fishermen on Pamilacan Island are

known to hunt whale sharks and manta rays.

The waters around the island are a known sanctuary for 11

species of dolphins and whales.

In fact, pamilacan or pamilac is the island dialect which means

killing whales sharks with the use of hooks. In Mindanao and

Donsol, Sorsogon, fishermen use harpoons in killing the fish.

Fishermen ride on pumpboats to hunt down the fish as they

swim to eat plankton which are abundant in the months of

January to March.

Upon seeing a school of whale sharks, the fishermen close in

and one of them leaps onto the back of the giant fish while

driving a hook into the fish for the fatal blow.

''The big fish would fight back and the fisherman would have to

struggle to control the fish,'' said Dr. Thomas Heeger, a

consultant of the University of San carlos Marine Biology

Department.

''It's not an easy task to hold a fish that weighs up to 12 tons,''

Heeger added.

Lourdes Arciaga, BFAR spokesperson, said ''480 of the

residents are engaged in hunting whale sharks while the rest are

engaged in catching manta rays.''