Whale Sharks, Eco-Tourism, and Fishermen

In the Philippines, there is a small community whose people are out of work and have no prospects for alternative ways to make a decent living. The 1,000 people of Barangay Guiwanon are a traditional fishing community. The high point of their life used to be fishing for whale sharks in their coastal waters, where from January through April of each year, they harvested approximately 60 animals. Men, women, and children all participated in butchering the huge fish, and in cutting the meat into pieces small enough to be air-dried on the beach. The whale shark provided direct subsistence, and the excess was sold to traders who came into town and bought it in bulk. This commercial aspect enhanced the local economy, and was their main livelihood, according to a piece in Business World, September 24th issue. These people apparently lived in relative comfort until 1998, when the government of the Philippines issued Fisheries Administrative Order No. 193 that banned the catching, selling, purchasing, possessing, transporting, and exporting of whale sharks.

Barangay Guiwanon residents were contacted by outsiders in 1997. They were told that it would be possible to make a lot of money by becoming tour guides for a whale shark watch operation. Such a deal never materialized, however, and then the next year came the ban. Times have continued to be hard, and Business World notes that in 2003, a group of former whale shark hunters in Guiwanon petitioned their local government to lobby for the lifting of the ban on whale shark hunting. The ban has not been lifted. The whale shark, (Rhincodon typus) is claimed by the WWF to be “dwindling” throughout its habitat. The animal is subject of a campaign by WWF that uses its great size and alleged scarcity as a symbol of concern for all shark species, worldwide. This species, listed in Appendix II of CITES, is now being used as a popular icon without regard for those people who have lived in harmony with it for centuries. The government of the Philippines appears to have bowed to pressure from protectionist groups, and made the decision to sacrifice its own people’s welfare in order to preclude public relations problems for their tourism industry. This is not a unique scenario. How many times have protectionist groups offered hunters or fishermen the “opportunity” to stop their use of a species and instead, become tour guides, or just sit and wait for handouts from their government? It happened in eastern Canada during the intense campaigns against the hunting of whitecoat harp seals. Canadian fishermen declined the offer, and their government fortunately supported their continued take of older harps, now an over-abundant species.

In southern Africa, the Kalahari Bushmen have been “kicked off” their traditional hunting grounds because their activities are not attractive to tourists. Their human rights have been disregarded, and a global eco-tourism has been given priority.

The people of Barangay Guiwanon are not part of a tourist operation, but they are victims of it. Their human rights have been ignored by their government, in favor of an alleged benefit to the whale shark tourism industry in areas removed from their village. There is no evidence that their former harvest was detrimental to whale shark stocks in Philippine waters, or that the ban has resulted in any change to stock status. IWMC urges CITES participants to be mindful of the needs of people to continue their traditional relationships with their environments. Eco-tourism is not an ethical excuse to displace them from activities that are not environmentally destructive, and that are their rightful cultural heritage.