Fishermen-turned-entrepreneurs who have been financing the protection of endangered whale sharks in the Philippines have hit on a successful scheme to help lift their coastal community out of poverty, new research has found. A group of 58 fishermen from the town of Oslob who were struggling to feed their families turned to the world’s largest fish species to set up a community based dive company in 2011. It has since become an international hotspot for tourists to swim with the sharks, attracting more than 750,00 visitors in the first five years and amounting to $18.4m (£14.7m) in ticket sales over the same period. The attraction, whereby former fishermen take tourists out on boats to observe, swim and dive with the whale sharks, has not been without controversy

How whale sharks saved a Philippine fishing town. (2019, January 5). Panay News, p. B8.