ENVIRONMENT and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza ordered the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) to determine the cause of death of a whale shark that was found floating in the Manila Bay on Wednesday.
PAWB Executive Director Mundita Lim told The Manila Times that Atienza has ordered an investigation as to how the whale shark got into the polluted waters of the Manila Bay and the cause of its death.

The whale shark was found floating at about 1:30 a.m. by fishermen at the breakwater of the Manila Bay near the Manila Yacht Club along Roxas Boulevard and retrieved by the Philippine Coast Guard.

Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Wilfredo Tamayo said the whale shark measures around 17 feet and weighs over 2 tons.

He said whale sharks usually seek warm water, and the butanding may have swam toward the Manila Bay whose temperature has changed because of global warming.

Tamayo said the whale shark might have been poisoned by the garbage that pollute the Manila Bay. He added whale sharks eat only planktons.

People at the scene said the whale shark might have given birth before it died as they also found a small whale shark by its side.

Greg Yan of the World Wide Fund for Nature said experts are looking at the possibility that the polluted waters of the Manila Bay and injuries on its eyes caused the death of the fish.

Lim said dead whale shark would be brought to the laboratory of Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic
Resources for necropsy before it is brought to the fish cemetery in Pangasinan.
Whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is considered as the largest fish in the world and is considered vulnerable specie by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Whale sharks visit the waters of Donsol, a fishing town in Sorsogon province from November to May. Being migratory in nature, they travel across the oceans, usually close to the equator. But nowhere else have they been sighted in a larger group than in the waters of Sorsogon.

All fishing, selling, importing and exporting of whale sharks for commercial purposes has been banned in the Philippines since 1998.

Ira Karen Apanay And Michael D. Tanaotanao