Lauren Smith


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A Wedding 29th May 2010

A Wedding

LOL – Lauren on Location – Calanggaman Island diving, a wedding, and the final dive at Monad Shoal.

On the 29th of May Gordon and I headed across to Calanggaman Island, a few hours South from Malapascua on a fun dive with Divelink. The first dive was an incredible wall dive, with huge soft corals and sponges, caves which pocket the wall and lots of reef fish as well as invertebrates to keep everyone happy.

Calanggaman Island

During the surface interval we pulled alongside the impressive sandspit at Calanggaman Island which gets exposed at low tide, and joined a wedding reception! Perhaps not the usual surface interval – but I wish it was! Nick & Flor Martorano were the perfect hosts and didn’t mind one bit that a bunch of diver’s some in wetsuits some in bikini’s had effectively crashed their wedding! To be fair it wasn’t as random as it sounds, Nick is good friends with Gary Cases (owner of Divelink) who was the best man and Nick & Flor had spent several days on Malapascua in the run up to the wedding where we were all introduced. By happy coincidence they live in Palau (where I am headed on the 9th of June) where Nick works as a dive instructor and underwater photographer/videographer (see www.oceanwonders.org) so hopefully we can catch up there.


The Bride and myself (probably the strangest wedding outfit I will ever wear!)

Following great food and a cheeky beer we completed a second dive (which the newly wedded couple joined us on) and then headed back to Malapascua, we had barely left Calanggaman when we were fortunate enough to see a whale (which is believed to be a sperm whale) at the surface then diving down raising its tail fluke in the air! Incredible!

A Sperm Whale

This week was my last diving Monad Shoal, and I was treated to a fantastic final display of Thresher sharks, Manta Rays, banded Sea Craite (Sea Snake) and spotted dolphins. Also a particular highlight for me was a Grey reef shark which came on to the cleaning station when I was conducting a fish census, I wouldn’t perhaps get so excited over a grey reef shark under normal circumstances, but although the grey reefs have been captured on an unmanned video camera no-one has seen them in person at Monad Shoal, so I was delighted with that unique sighting!

Well ‘Tempus fugit’ as they say… I can hardly believe that this weekend marks my last few days on Malapascua Island working for the Thresher Shark Research and Conservation Project, I will be going to Palau shortly and will continue the blog from there, from what I have learnt so far I cannot wait to dive there and hope for some more amazing experiences!

I would just like to thank everyone – staff and volunteers of the TSRCP for my time here which has been incredible, but of course the real star’s of the show, that have literally taken my breath away are all the inhabitants of Monad Shoal, with special mention to the Thresher Sharks and Manta Rays!

Can I pick a favourite? Staying true to form I would have to pick the Thresher Sharks…..

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100 dives for the one fin wonder!

100 dives for the one fin wonder!
LOL – Lauren on Location – another fantastic week for Lauren as she logs up her 100th dive and along with some of the members of the TSRCP team she goes freediving around Malapascua Island.
Most sites are quite shallow with the deepest freedive logged at 10m; however the most fascinating site was “coral gardens” located out of bounty beach. As the name suggests there’s lots of coral coverage with relatively few non-colonized sandy patches, there are many species of small reef dwelling fish (although we didn’t see any larger fish indicating the health of the reef is not as good as it could be) and you could literally spend hours here looking at and photographing the reef.

The Coral Gardens
The start of this week was a bit of a milestone for me as I logged my 100th dive. I was lucky, on my 100th I got a Thresher Shark circling and on dive 101 I had another fantastic Manta Ray visit with it passing so close and going over my head! I never thought I would be writing about manta ray sightings as often as I have been – the week previous to this I saw 2 manta rays and 1 thresher shark all circling together at the same time, I thought I was going to explode I was so excited! I couldn’t decide where to look; this practically resulted in whiplash from snapping my head back and forth between animals!!! I am told that such sightings are by no means typical and so feel extremely fortunate to be experiencing this number/quality of sightings.
Yesterday I was struck with an entirely new challenge, I had cut open my heel on my booties when Freediving at the weekend this had become infected (I will spare the readers the gory details –let’s just say it wasn’t looking good!) and my ankle was swollen, having already made the decision to get up at 4:20am and go out on the boat I was determined to find a way to dive.

Whatever it takes ….. the 1 fin wonder!

I tried pulling on my wetsuit, but there was no way my ankle could bend in that direction so instead I was kitted out in Helen’s rash vest and Gordon’s board shorts, to keep the shorts up, I tucked the rash vest in the boardie’s, which came half way up my chest and the pull cord was doubled up and tied around my back, to top it all off I wore one bootie and one fin for all the dives !!! After providing everyone with a good laugh at my expense I was pleasantly surprised with my 1 fining ability, however there are some amusing videos in existence with my foot kicking out at about 100 times of the finned one!! Turns out my effort was worth it as I got the best Thresher Shark sighting I have ever had and was able to get some pretty good shots!

Today I remain on land willing the infection not to get out of control and to let me get back in the water with both fins as soon as possible!

Best Thresher sighting yet.

Manta Ray eclipsing the sun as it passed overhead (the next few shots I couldn’t get the whole animal in view as it dropped even lower!)

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Surviving Fiesta and Manta Ray Overload 12th May 2010

Surviving Fiesta and Manta Ray Overload!

LOL – Lauren on Location – Eye to eye with a Manta ray

Fiesta’s in the Philippines are usually held to celebrate a patron saint or to mark the passing of a season, different city’s/islands in the Philippines hold fiestas at different times of the year depending on the decisions made by the local Barangay (Christmas being the exception where everyone celebrates together).

One of the boats decorated for the fiesta’s boat parade

The 12th of May marked the only local fiesta of the year on Malapascua Island; I believe this was held in honour of the “Virgin de los Desamparados” the “miracle” of the island and the patron saint of the local people. She appeared as a piece of driftwood that wouldn’t burn, after some time people decided that it was an appearance of the virgin Mary and it was painted and dressed as such, and now resides in the village church. However I must admit that for me the true “miracle” of the Malapascua Island festival was my survival!!! Never have I experienced such displays of local hospitality (otherwise known as outrageous amounts of food and drink), given the expense involved of holding the fiesta for the local people their generosity is unparalleled.

“Lechon” spit roasted pig is the most popular fiesta meal

The fiesta for me began at around 11am when I was presented with a shot of Tanduay Rhum; thankfully we had then been invited to lunch, followed by a sort of late lunch and 2 dinners! Of course each engagement meant more beer than food, the afternoon descended into somewhat of a haze for me I had even stopped noticing the heat (40 degree plus), however I am (somewhat) reliably informed that after taking a bottle of beer (large beasts called Gold Eagle) to our cooks house to thank her for a bottle she had shared with us, we (myself and the rest of the TSRCP crew) left after 15 bottles had been consumed! I was then pretty much finished off with a final shot of Tanduay!

Thankfully in the days following the fiesta I was rewarded with yet more unbelievable dives with the Manta Rays. On one dive I was conducting a fish census, over a cleaning station I was so absorbed in what I was doing that I had not noticed the approaching manta ray, when I looked up I was literally reg to gills with the manta, it was so close that I could see it’s eye watching me! Incredible! The following day we also watched a manta cruising along the edge of the shoal while on a 12m safety stop, a fantastic view which showed how graceful these giants are.
I am currently in Cebu City awaiting the arrival of Gordon my fiancée (- crazy guy!), I cannot wait for him to get out to the Island and begin to experience what I have had the pleasure of so far on this adventure!
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An Update from Lauren May 2010

An Update from Lauren

LOL – Lauren on Location rounded off a fabulous week of diving at Monad Shoal with 2 dives at Gato Island (about 1 – 1 1/2 hrs boat ride N.W. of Malapascua Island) today, which was absolutely incredible, the visibility was particularly good especially on our first dive and the water was like glass.
Managed to see a number of White-tip reef sharks, hanging out under ledges and in caves which was incredible and of course my highlight, however the sheer abundance of soft coral cover was outstanding especially the pulsing coral which was absolutely mesmerizing and definitely had the ability to put me in a trance like state.

Gato Island – a view from the water

The second dive included a cave dive, which was excellent if not somewhat disorientating in the complete blackness, we also saw more white-tip’s including one free – swimming.

Whitetip reef shark

During the week I had enjoyed all sorts of macro life (such as octopus, squid, cuttlefish, scorpionfish, stonefish, lizard fish etc…) as well as 3 of the most impressive elasmobranch visitors to Monad shoal; Thresher Sharks, Devil Rays and Manta Rays.

I had missed the Manta Ray visits the previous week due to my ear infection and was beginning to get desperate for a sighting.

Manta Ray

As we descended for our final dive of the day, I began to make out abstract white shapes in the water; I was puzzled until I realized that the white patches were linked together and formed the absolutely massive body of a Manta Ray estimated at 5m (conservative!) across from wingtip to wingtip! The ability of this behemoth to move so gracefully underwater was fantastic, it held such a presence.

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Sharks, Rays, Visa’s, Ear’s and Woolly Hats April 2010

Sharks, Rays, Visa’s, Ear’s and Woolly Hats

LOL – Lauren on Location – Too much detail around ear infections balanced by some rather nice photos.

A little over a week ago I was starting to get impatient, I had been out of the water for several days due to an infection in my right ear and (more importantly) no longer wanted to wear a woolly hat on the boat to stop the wind aggravating it whilst everyone else was diving, however a trip in to Cebu city was on the cards for me to go and renew my visa, which I thought I may as well combine with a trip to the ENT Doc to try and find a solution to my resounding deafness!

After going to the bureau of immigration and extending my visa (first extension is 38 days and cost me less than 4000 pesos, thereafter I can extend for 2 months at a time), I headed to Dr Gary Rivera’s surgery located at Suite 321, M. Diaz Building, Cor. Don Jose Avila St, Osmena Blvd, Cebu City, with the hope that I could get an appointment. Everyone was brilliant and I just waited in line for my turn to see the Doctor, when I was being seen the first thing Dr Rivera said was “I can’t see your ear drum” after seeing my frown of concern he quickly said “there’s so much residual infection stuck to it I need to suction it out”, after having several alarming metal rods poked in my ear and after swapping to a higher power suction machine I was more than happy to realize that my hearing was greatly improved. I was sent away with some drops to get rid of the remaining stubborn gunk stuck to my ear drum (thank you so much to Dr Rivera and his surgery team, I fully recommend him for anyone requiring an ENT doctor in the Cebu City area).

Once back on the island I was more than happy to be back in the water and being spoilt by visits from numerous Devil Rays and Thresher Sharks and many other critters on the reef, I am really enjoying experimenting with underwater photography, I only have a compact setup (Panasonic Lumix with HD video), but I have been delighted with the images I have captured.

The Thresher Sharks are a challenge as they tend to arrive very early in the morning when the visibility is poor. All images have been taken with the flash turned off so as to minimize the impact and disturbance on the reef life.
Pelagic Thresher Shark

Pygmy Devil ray in full flight over reef

Back in the water – more to come soon !!!!!!!!!!

LOL – Lauren on Location

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Filipino Marine Protected Areas April 2010

Filipino Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

 

LOL – Lauren on Location – Filipino MPA’s

The recent Marine Bills which have been passed in the UK led to an interest in finding out about Marine Protected Areas that have been set up in the Philippines, many thanks to Helen King who took the time to provide me with following overview:

Filipino Fishing Techniques:-

Hooka – Compressor fishing, the compressor sits on the boat / shoreline and connects to a long hose (up to 60m), this allows the diver to stay down for up to 2 hours at a time. Areas are totally cleared of all target species such as large fish like Groupers or Lobsters. Very bad for the health of the fishermen, which when older begin to show signs of lung disease. This is an illegal method, but is still used.

Muro Ami – Fishermen use rocks to bang the reef to scare the fish and to corral them into nets, they also drag the rocks. Extremely destructive, often the children aid in this, again it is an illegal method but is still used.

Dynamite – Obviously devastatingly destructive, dynamite blasts kill and stun the fish for harvesting, evidence is all around including fishermen with missing limbs and the detonations you can hear when SCUBA diving.

Hook and Line – The best method, but because it takes longer and there is a lower yield it is not a popular technique.

Long-lining – Fishermen set-out hundreds of hooks, for target species. Very wasteful with large numbers of by-catch species.

Net Fishing – Net hole regulations are in place, requiring fishermen to have holes of a specific size allowing smaller fish to pass through, however many fishermen will double or even triple net, the larger holed nets will be on the outside but nets with smaller holes in the inside, trapping all sizes of fish.

Cyanide – This is squirted into crevices to stun the fish, too easy to get the quantities wrong so the fish are poisoned and this ends up in the food stream. This is also used to capture fish for the aquarium trade.

Trawl Fishing – Rocks are attached to the base of nets and dragged along the bottom / reef. Extremely destructive.

In the Philippines fish provides 50% of the protein within the diet.

Benefits of Marine Reserves:-

Protection of spawning stock biomass

Provision of a recruitment source for surrounding areas

Supplemental re-stocking of fished areas through emigration

Maintenance of natural population age structure

Maintenance of undisturbed habitat

Protection of intraspecific genetic diversity (larger gene pool for long term species survival)

Insurance against management failures in fished areas

Reduce data collection needs

Simplified enforcement

Ease of public understanding and acceptance of management

Management Approaches:-

Zoning areas for specific practices, this can be awkward fishermen can say they’re confused (hard to see boundaries)

Closure during valuable times e.g.: breeding of certain species, again mistakes by fishermen can occur some are genuine others are on purpose

Alternating periods of use e.g.: allow fishing for a year then close, but fish stocks can take a long time to recover and again people don’t understand if you say yes you can fish and then no you can’t.

Permitted level of use, difficult to monitor every fisherman

Size limits for catch – will fishermen stick to this? Again difficult to monitor

Prohibit / limit equipment and methods, and again difficult to monitor.

So the only effective management approaches have been to permanently close an area, although this can be initially more difficult to be explain and to be accepted, this is the best option as the rules are fixed and thus is easier to monitor.

The MPA selection process is very important, areas are accessed for coral cover, target species (e.g.: lobster), number of invertebrates and fish. Diversity of the coral is considered, and nutrient run-off from land is examined.

Once the MPA is established it will be popular with divers so mooring buoys are put in, this is better than anchors being dropped all over the reef and causing coral damage. The divers also add to the income by paying a fee to dive within the MPA, this currently stands at 100 pesos per diver (approx £1.60) but many divers would pay much more.

MPA Layout:-

There is a central no take zone and then around this there is a buffer zone, where limited hook and line fishing is allowed to take place, the Bantay Dagat (literally meaning Guardian of the Sea) patrol this area. The fishermen are more likely to respect the MPA if they are allowed this are and as the fish get larger and stock sizes increase they spill over from the MPA to the buffer zone, the fishermen will notice this and will understand the MPA is working.

MPA is not a quick solution, 2-3 years is the minimum for fishermen to begin to see fish in the buffer zone, it is extremely important the fishermen understand this. In time the fish will spill out of the buffer zone where any legal fishing can occur.

MPA Fees:-

Fees can differ but in Southern Leyte 20 % goes to the Bantay Dagat for wages

20% goes to the LGU (Local Government Unit) which helps to assist the MPA establishment and subsequent running.

60 % goes to the Barangay note: it is important to setup an MPA council with only 2 members of the Barangay council on. The MPA council employ the Bantay Dagat and make sure the MPA is working, the Barangay council spend the money which is raised by the MPA, but it is monitored by the MPA council and have to show and justify where spending the spending has gone. In turn the Barangay council monitors the MPA council and can ask for progress reports etc…

Social Implications of MPAs:-

Local fishermen have to be on board for the MPA to be a success, to enable this they have to understand this is a long term process, so development of alternate livelihoods is key. So while the MPA is being established things such as craft making is encouraged – jewellery, bowls, wind chimes etc are made out of coconuts and sold to tourists, home gardening is encourage enabling more self sustainability, and local fishermen are employed as Bantay Dagats.

The emphasis is placed on “you are doing this for your children and your children’s children” as the family and community are incredibly important. There is absolutely no point in setting up an MPA without a strong information campaign.

A couple of examples:-

Apo Island, MPA first established in 1982-1986, 11 hectare MPA after 18 years there was a 12 fold increase of large predatory fish outside of the MPA, catch rate increased and fishing effort decreased, massively community based, everyone was involved and as a result it was a huge success.

In contrast Sumilon Island was established in 1974, in 1984 there was a breakdown of management, people thought the fish stocks and reef had recovered, from 1986-2001 the management was unsustainable. From 1974-1984 the average increase in fish yield per year was from 9.7 to 16.8, this reduced to 11.2 from 1984-1986 and from 1986-2001 had gone down to 10.1 and all the live coral had been reduced to rubble.

In conclusion when managed properly and when this management is based on a strong information campaign Marine Protected Areas around the Philippines work and seem the only guaranteed option to preserve the health of the reefs for local communities and visiting divers alike.

 

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Earth Day 2010 22nd April

Earth Day 2010

LOL – Lauren on Location – Earth Day 2010 – Lauren gives a talk, cleans up and discusses dangerous toilets.
Thursday the 22nd April 2010 was Earth Day; originally founded in 1970 in the US by Senator G. Nelson it is now celebrated by more than 175 countries worldwide and is designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment.
Earlier in the week, Helen King TSRCP’s Education and Community Officer had spoken to the Barangay Captain (Rex) who had agreed to participate in a series of lectures given by ourselves to the Barangay Officials on earth day designed to highlight the importance of coral reefs, the effect of global warming on coral reefs, the importance of the coral reef to elasmobranches and waste management strategies to protect the reefs and to help prevent global warming continue at it’s current rate. The Barangay is the Filipino word for village, and so the Barangay Officials are responsible for things occurring within their area. It was fantastic news and an honour to be allowed to take part in this event (I spoke on the importance of coral reefs to elasmobranches).
We also gave a similar series of lectures to the local kids of all ages and got them involved in a beach cleanup, the day was a huge success everyone had a fantastic time and hopefully learnt something useful. Also some promising initial discussions (prompted by Claire Horseman’s lecture – a visiting Science Officer from Coral Cay Conservation) began with the Barangay Captain about setting up Marine Protected Areas (MPA’s) around Malapascua Island.
Getting involved teaching the local children about the importance of sharks and how toilets kill more people each year than sharks!
TSRCP Crew and Barangay Officials
Beach – Cleanup Crew

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Travelling and Training 11th April 2010

LOL – Lauren on Location – Lauren makes her way to Thresher Shark Research and Conservation Project (TSRCP), based on Malapascua Island, off the North East tip of Cebu, gets some on site dive training, explores a wreck and catches her first sight of a thresher shark.

After flying back from Legaspi to Manila and then from Manila to Cebu, I then boarded a Ceres Liner bus to Maya, the bus was fantastic (apart from the heat!), most people on the bus had cockerels in their bags which led to a chorus of crowing as we whizzed along the track, I had a lovely lady sit next to who must have thought I needed fattening up as she kept pulling out all sorts of food from her bag to give to me!


Leaving Cebu on route to Maya

The bus took 3 & 1/2 hrs which considering it can take 6hrs was pretty good going, at Maya I was picked up by the TSRCP crew and we headed over to Malapascua Island (this took around 30 mins).


At Maya ferry port, with Malapascua Island in the far distance.

On arrival on Malapascua I got settled in and loved my room and the artwork at the guesthouse!

The door to the bathroom!
One of the walls in the Guesthouse

The following day I had an island tour (courtesy of Nick – Science Officer and Helen – Education officer) and then I began dive training G.U.E. style, G.U.E. Global Underwater Explorers emerged out of a shared desire to safely explore and protect the underwater world and to improve the quality of education and research in all things aquatic. They utilize different diving techniques and styles than those taught conventionally, hence when used to diving in a certain way the training can be quite challenging.

However thanks to Medel’s (Expedition Leader) training capabilities I soon began to get the hang of it, all training is conducted at specific sights with sandy bottoms hence buoyancy issues can be resolved with no cost to the aquatic environment (even if you do end up face planting yourself). However I must report I am yet to fully conquer a technique known as the reverse fin, the object is as the term implies to go backwards, this is all well and good apart from my feet and butt having a tendency to rise up rather than go backwards, I can only imagine what I must look like underwater, indeed if the cleaner fish see me in that position they will probably think it is an elaborate invitation posture for them to come and clean me!
By the Wednesday (14th) I had completed by dive training and had even done a fun dive – a Japanese WWII wreck, the coral growth and species are incredible and the critters to be seen are both numerous and elaborate, most people dive this site at sunset to see the Mandarin fish, however I was extremely lucky to see both an adult and a juvenile mandarin fish on the dive around 3pm.
By the Thursday I was able to dive the site which I had come here for: Monad Shoal. We were on the boat by 6am and heading to Monad which is about 1/2hrs boat ride away, as we descended onto Monad I was shown the site by Medel and Felimar (Dive Master), just as we were preparing to begin an ascent (we had already seen numerous species of coral, lionfish, cuttlefish, blue spotted rays etc) a Pelagic Thresher Shark came into view, this is what I had come here to see, the shark did an initial pass and then came back, we got as low as we could to the bottom and let the shark do its thing, at one point it came in low and headed directly at us, incredible view so sleek and he practically shimmered underwater with his colouration, when it eventually swam off watching it’s tail disappear into the distance was incredible!
What a fantastic first encounter, I hope I have many more over the next 2 months…

LOL – Lauren on Location

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The Giants of the Ocean April 2010

The Giants of the Ocean

LOL – Lauren on Location – Lauren gambles with the ATM and gets to swim with whale sharks.

After a good nights sleep in Manila I was back in the Airport this time flying domestic with Cebu Pacific (terminal 3), to Legaspi in South Luzon, here I was hopefully meeting up with a representative from Donsol EcoTour / PADI Dive Asia who I had been corresponding with for some months and then travelling to Donsol where I would be staying and (fingers and toes crossed) going out to see the whale sharks.
A mild panic at the airport ensued when I decided to get some more cash out just incase (I had previously exchanged travellers cheques and some US currency at Manila airport and for ease I would recommend other travellers to do the same), I had put my card in the ATM (Country Bank) and it had accepted my PIN but froze when about to dispense the cash, I waited a little while and then thought I should probably press cancel, when my card was still not spat out I became slightly worried and just as my mind started to go into action plan mode of phoning the bank etc, my card re-appeared – phew! I later learnt that it is best to use BDO ATM’s and I would urge others to use these where-ever possible (note the limit for some ATMS is 10,000 pesos per day, however at times certain ATMs will not dispense the 10,000 – instead giving you less, and in other cases it is possible to put your card in several times extracting 5,000 each time – almost like a game…. almost).

 

The flight across with Cebu Pacific was like no other I have ever experienced! Mid flight the air hostesses play a game where they shout an item out and the first to wave it in the air wins an airline travel pouch, believe me I have never seen so much energy, excitement and enthusiasm on a flight before! Excellent!

 

On the flight I was seated next to a couple from Arizona, G & Ray, we started chatting and fuelling each others excitement at the prospect of seeing whale sharks the following day. When we landed I felt like what I used to refer to as a “Champagne Backpacker” (someone who claims to be travelling but insists on staying in hotels and who refuses to use the public / cattle class transport), this feeling however did not prevent me from climbing gratefully into the air conditioned pickup that had been provided for me by my Donsol EcoTour contact.

 

Legaspi is quite striking with Mt Mayon the volcano as the backdrop to the town, as we made our way through the city the concentration of shops and people became less and the landscape gave way to coconut palms, banana trees and rice paddies, the journey through to Donsol took about 1hour and 10 minutes, upon arrival I went into the PADI Dive Asia shop and registered to go out on a boat the following morning; at this point I must pause to thank Jessica Noelle Wong with whom I had been corresponding before my trip and also Ruby Lita who took care of me on-site, their help and generosity enabled me to go out on 2 trips free of charge, the value of such actions are immense in a place where money provided by the whale shark ecotourism venture is vital to its continued success and existence.

 

That evening I watched the sunset on the beach which gave way to a brilliant red sky, at which point I had already begun praying to the shark god for a whale shark sighting the following day (red sky at night, Lauren’s delight?). I headed to bed full of hope…

 

I should never have been worried … over the 2 days I was spoilt with 10 whale shark sightings!!!!! All of which I was able to swim / freedive with, the largest shark was estimated at around 12m, the longest interaction time I had was about 20 minutes, and I am pretty sure that one of the females was pregnant (as I dove down her lower abdomen was extremely swollen). The buzz I got out of being in the water with these animals was phenomenal, their grace, their patterns and colouration and of course their immense size.
Here I was cruising along with the biggest fish in the sea – I say cruising, they were cruising, 1 slight change in direction for them meant some hard fin work for me! Just incredible sharks and I felt honoured to be in the water next to them, the length of time with the animals also allowed my mind to register the fact that here I was in their presence, this led to much “YES WHALE SHARKS !!!!” being shouted in my head, plenty of fist clenching and grinning (which led inadvertently to me joining in with the whale sharks diet of plankton, thanks to me flooding my snorkel on more than 1 occasion).
The huge female (12m) which hung around for 20 minutes was exceptional, she gave me eye contact on more than 1 occasion, but didn’t appear to be bothered by me presence in the slightest; after all I probably qualified as an oversized remora with me measuring in at (1.5m). When it came time to let this female be on her way I dropped back and followed behind her for a little while from an appropriate distance, which was immense – I mean how many times do you get to ride a whale sharks wake?!

 

Way too amazing!

 

On the evening of the 9th I met up with Jackie Ziegler, a whale shark researcher investigating the effects of whale shark ecotourism around the world for her Masters thesis. I had spoken to her earlier in the day about ongoing whale shark research and sharks / elasmobranchs in general and was eager to discuss more. I headed to where she was staying which turned out to be the Mayors house in Donsol (Mayor Alcantera’s), there I enjoyed rather too much local hospitality and was spoilt with home cooking (had my first encounter with pigs intestine!) but primarily with (what felt like gallons) of Red Horse Beer, G & Ray also joined us which was great but after 5 hours Jackie got more than she bargained for when I had to stay with her for the night having had too much Red Horse to go anywhere!
I left Donsol the following day with a slight headache, but most importantly feeling like I had a connection with the place despite having spent less than 4 days there in total, mind-blowing sharks and incredible people an experience never to be forgotten.

 

LOL – Lauren on Location

 

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How’d you like your eggs in the morning? 5th April 2010

How’d you like your eggs in the morning
” – I like mine over the South China Sea….”

By the time it came to leave Aberdeen on the 5th of April, I was literally bursting at the seams (the luggage and myself!). Finally the adventure was here and I couldn’t wait to get started.
I arrived at Aberdeen airport at around 4:30am and began my day with a Ginsters scotch roll! In fact the entire 28 hours of travel featured an extensive amount of food and drink (no surprise to those of you who know me), but I must say even I was filling up by the time it got to the equivalent of 2:30am on the 6th UK time and I was interrupted from watching “new moon” to be handed my 4th meal of the Amsterdam to Manila flight – noodles and a beer! After finishing watching the film and when my thumbs were aching from playing to much in-flight Tetris I managed about 2 hrs sleep before breakfast was upon us.

Queue the song: “How do you like your eggs in the morning?” (I pull up the window blind, and look on the map) “I like mine over the South China Sea…” Ok so I’m hardly a musical genius but I was pleased with myself and as I started humming the song the Filipino guy next to me was most amused – so much so he (Mario) gave me an entire run down of the Philippines, and gave me his number incase I should need any assistance, really helpful!

As we began the final decent into Manila I kept an eye on the outside temperature and was alarmed to find it was 20°C even though we were however many feet still up in the air and it was 8:00am, I think it was about 4°C when I left Aberdeen…. Once landed it was 32°C and the sweating began in earnest…

Hello Philippines let the adventure’s begin!