Whale shark buried in Dagupan’s fish cemetery
FOUR days before the country celebrates All Saints Day, another sea creature was laid to rest at the Fish Cemetery in Dagupan, one of its kinds in the Philippines.
Buried on Thursday at the cemetery inside the National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center (NIFTDC) was a whale shark (Rhincodon typus), locally known as “butanding”, which was found dead by fishermen on Wednesday dawn at Manila Bay.
Angelito de la Cruz, aquaculturist at NIFTDC, said the creature, which they have named “Milaoc”, arrived at 4:00 a.m. Thursday and had to be immediately buried as it was already in an advanced state decomposition.
Dr. Westly Rosario, interim head of NIFTDC, said the whale shark’s name was coined from ‘Manila’ where was wound dead, and buried in the month of ‘October’.
Before it was transported to Dagupan, the 5.2-meter long mammal had to be chopped into two pieces to fit into the trailer truck. Weighing more or less 1.5 ton, it had to be unloaded from the truck with the aid of a crane.
Sightings of whale sharks, which are friendly mammals, have been recorded twice at Lingayen Gulf but they are more regularly found in Donsol, Sorsogon.
“Milaoc” was the 16th sea creature buried in the fish cemetery established since 1999. It came almost a year after “Roxanne”, a 9.8-meter, three ton Minke Whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) which was said to have died after being bumped by a sea-going vessel in Manila Bay.
The NIFTDC officials said the fish cemetery serves as a monument for marine species that are important in maintaining ecological balance, particularly in the aquatic environment.–LM
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