During my stay in Moalboal, I stayed at Panagsama Beach. While I spent most of my time doing my open water diving course (which you can read about here), I did some other activities, too! In this post, I will write about what to expect when you go whale shark watching in Oslob. I must admit that I also did this back in 2017 but I was so ill that I didn’t get to appreciate it as much as I would have hoped.
Booking Tickets
I booked my trip for 1500PHP through a guy called George as I was walking along Panagsama Beach. There are loads of people selling these tours. If you don’t feel comfortable booking from someone outside, just go to a dive shop or ask at your accommodation. If you’re interested in booking through George you can contact him by scanning the QR code below.
Timeline of Events
I had to be up and ready at 4:50am to get a van with other people who were staying in Panagsama Beach. We collected people at various hostels. There was a total mixture of ages and nationalities in the van. Also, there was complete silence as everyone was trying to sleep as it was still dark.
We drove for about an hour and a half and arrived at Oslob for around 7am. We had to queue for an hour before we did our safety briefing. You will also be asked to wash off any sunscreen you have on so that it doesn’t affect the whale sharks.
After that, we were given a number and had to wait again. There are places to get some food and beverages as well while you wait. To be honest, I just got a coffee and I spent the whole time sticking my head outside. I was worried that we would be called and I would miss out.
At 8:30am, we were finally called to enter the water. We got to swim with the whale sharks for about 30 minutes and it was an incredible experience. They are massive, calm and beautiful creatures. You can swim with them but of course, keep your distance as well.
If you don’t have a snorkel, you can rent one for 50PHP. Another option is that you can hire a GoPro for 500PHP which will be given to your guide. They will swim in the water and record videos of the whale sharks as well as you swimming alongside them.
Finally, we were out of the water by 9:30am and given a few minutes to wash ourselves off before walking back to the van. Anyone who hired a GoPro had their images and videos transferred over to to their devices before our van left at 10am.
Most of the van decided to go back to Panagsama Beach. However, I decided to do canyoneering in Alegria. You can read more about that in my next post! Also, if you’re not too keen on travelling by van, you could stay at Sharky Hostel in Oslob. It’s still an early start but you’ll be first up and in the water to see the whale sharks at sunrise.
Ethics
Several of us on the trip had wonderings about the ethics behind this experience. I didn’t see anything personally which would make me think that the whale sharks were being harmed. We were told by locals that as the whale sharks are fed regularly, they stay in the area. However, there were crowds of people coming in and out of the water every few minutes. While the group I was with kept their distance from the whale sharks, I wonder if this is the same with other groups.
Thanks for reading!
