Unethical feast in paradise

by Inés Poggio Quero (Spain)

I didn't expect to find Philippines

We finally reached paradise, that beautiful place we have always dreamt of. I could see the palm trees rubbing the coastline and appreciate the increasingly clear water until it almost became crystalline. We are overwhelmed by a special vibration due to the excitement. The temperature is perfect and I feel like if the soft tropical waters were hugging me. My family and I have been traveling the world for years. At my young age, I have already visited incredible places like Australia, Mexico, Mozambique, Qatar, Maldives ... although my favorites are still Seychelles. I will never forget diving in those peaceful waters and feeling the infinity of the ocean. Along our journey, we had been recommended lots of places due to different reasons: their diversity, their local culture, the pleasant temperature… but everyone agreed that the place where we are now, in particular, it is worth it because of the food. I do not know how long are we going to stay, sometimes we stay months in an area and explore it thoroughly, but sometimes we only stay a couple of days and then we look for a new route to find new experiences. It is my first time in the Philippines and as soon as I arrived I already had the opportunity to swim with dolphins, something I could do every day without a problem and it will still never be enough, they are so agile and fun! One of the first things my family does when arriving at a new destination is to talk to the locals to spot the best coast, where to swim with more tranquility, routes, risks... This time, they recommended an area in Cebu called Tan-Awan next to Oslob. As we get closer we all begin to appreciate the increase of the fresh prawn's aroma that fishermen brought in their boats. The thrill makes us increase the speed and in less than we expected, we are already there. Everything we had been mentioned was real! A torrent of infinite prawns seems to wriggle from the surface by magic. We all begin to open our big mouths and let the small crustaceans enter along with a large amount of water. Out of excitement, it is not until a while later when we realize that we were surrounded by a huge crowd and at that moment everything becomes more complicated. I can feel the restlessness of my family being beaten with boats, touching scuba divers and controlling their 20 meters long not to hit each other. It was a unique experience, I could not say whether nice or wrong but simply exciting. We can feel that the concentration of nutrients in the water decreased, so we move away from the area and discover how some of us have some propeller scars. Even so, we all agree to repeat the next day. We return day after day, we don't even need to wait to notice the increase in nutrients, we know exactly where it is going to be placed and even before the boats begin to distribute them we are already in the area. It becomes a simple way to feed ourselves effortlessly and it is so addictive that we don't even care about scars, bumps or people. Years have passed and we are many more in these waters, our size is no longer so large since our food is not so varied. I realize that I miss traveling, I would like to explore new places again, try new oceans and swim with dolphins. If you travel to this paradise, I only ask you not to visit us, so maybe one day we stop being fed and decide to migrate again. My name is Rhincodon typus, although here they call me Tiki-Tiki or whale shark.