The visitors that swam in the waters off this city may have stayed longer but the noise and dirty seawater could have turned them off, consequently drove them away to less hostile parts— they are nine gentle giants, whale sharks known as butanding. Tourism officials believed the whale sharks swam from Donsol in Sorsogon province and merely wandered in the waters off Legazpi. Donsol is the known sanctuary of whale sharks in Bicol for the past many years but there were many instances when they would disappear for months only to return. The nine butanding showed up near the Legazpi shoreline on February 10, and had drawn foreign and local tourists. It was the third showing of butanding here since 2010, staying only briefly.

Ugalde, M. T. (2014, February 28). Whale sharks shy away from dirty seawater, noise. The Manila Times, p. A6.