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Benj blogs: Oh, the hypocrisy! July 13, 2006

I remember visiting a blog that featured really nice pictures of whale sharks in Donsol. He was a lucky guy, he got to see eight whale sharks that day.

I left a comment commending him for his great photos and amazing luck in interacting with the world’s largest fish.

He humbly accepted my compliment…

and then, the single greatest moment of hypocrisy happened…

he told me : SAVE THE WHALE SHARKS!

right. cute, really.

Isn’t it obvious that having 30 boats tailing every single whale shark is just as bad as exposing the sharks to the noise and pollution generated by dynamite fishing?

Isn’t it obvious that having people chase a whale shark into the open sea disrupts the fish in its normal biorhythm?

Isn’t it obvious that interaction in itself puts a strain on the already precarious status of the animal as an endangered species?

Going to Donsol to swim with whale sharks doesn’t make you an environmentalist - it makes you a tourist who is willing to disturb a helpless peaceful giant minding its own business. Unless you’re a marine biologist of course.

If you want to save the whale sharks, don’t encourage the type of tourism that invades the sharks’ natural feeding grounds.

If you can’t help it, be like everyone else and just go disturb the whale sharks without preaching your illogical stance.

Jeebus.