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Where are whale sharks found? Oslob and the other Philippine sites

Where are whale sharks found? In warm seas around the world, and the Philippines holds one of the largest known populations. Oslob is the best known site, but not the only one.

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Editorial team, oslobwhalesharkwatching.comUpdated October 22, 2026Reading time 6 min27 sources

This guide's tour Oslob Whale Sharks and Kawasan Canyoneering Day 4.7 (728 reviews) 16 hoursWhale sharks and Kawasan FallsHotel pickup and lunch from$127per person Check availabilityFree cancellation until 24 hrs before pickup

Quick answer

01Worldwide: All tropical and warm temperate seas except the Mediterranean.¹
02Philippines: Home to the second largest known population in the world.²
03Oslob: Sharks fed daily, all year.³
04Donsol: Seasonal, surveyed from December to June.⁴
05Bohol: The Bohol listing ferries guests to the Oslob pier.

Where whale sharks live

The whale shark has a very wide range: it occurs in all tropical and warm temperate seas, with the exception of the Mediterranean.¹ Most records fall between 30°N and 35°S, and it is seen regularly off Australia, Belize, Ecuador, Mexico, the Philippines and South Africa.⁵ It prefers surface water of around 21 to 30 °C.⁶

Whale sharks are travellers. They return to favourite feeding sites but are highly migratory, moving about 24 to 28 km a day.⁷ Satellite tags have followed individuals for over 13,000 km in 37 months.⁸ Coastal sites where tourists meet them are mostly gathering points of juvenile males, not permanent homes.⁹

That is why most whale shark encounters around the world are seasonal. Nearly all whale shark tourism relies on chance sightings of animals that are not fed.¹⁰ Oslob, where the sharks are fed every morning, is the exception, and the other Philippine sites below work the traditional way.

A year of whale sharks

When each site is in season

December

Donsol and Pintuyan begin

Both run into June.⁴ ¹¹
March

Tubbataha

Sharks reported from March to June.³
April

Honda Bay surveys start

Surveyed until October in 2018.¹²
May to November

Oslob's peak

Weekly numbers peaked in these months.¹³
All year

Oslob

Sharks provisioned daily, year-round.³

Why the Philippines matters for whale sharks

The Philippines is home to the second largest known population of whale sharks in the world.² The country did not always protect them. The Bohol Sea was an active whale shark hunting ground until the late 1990s, when the species was protected nationally under FAO 193 of the Department of Agriculture.¹⁴ Before that, one study recorded about 500 whale sharks landed between 1993 and 1997 at just two places.¹⁵

After the ban, tourism took over, with Donsol in Sorsogon leading the way.¹⁵ The Philippines now has legislation banning all fishing for whale sharks.¹⁶ In the islands the animal goes by the name butanding, and it appears on the back of the 100-peso note.¹⁷

The sites are connected. Two whale sharks identified in Honda Bay in Palawan were matched to Oslob, about 500 km to the east.¹⁸ Photo-identification across the country has built a catalogue in which Donsol's sharks alone make up 44% of the 1,095 known individuals.¹⁹ For a visitor that means the shark you meet at one site may well have passed through another, and every site's rules help the same animals.

Photo-identified sharks

Individual whale sharks identified per site

sharks

Donsol records back to 1998, Oslob over three years from 2012 and Honda Bay in 2018; the studies cover different periods.¹⁹ ²⁰ ¹²

Philippine sites compared

Five places to meet a whale shark

Site	When	Fed?	Sharks identified
Oslob, Cebu	All year, peak May to Nov	Yes	208 (2012 to 2015)
Donsol, Sorsogon	December to June	No	479
Honda Bay, Palawan	Surveyed April to October	No	117 (2018)
Pintuyan, Southern Leyte	December to June	Not stated	Not stated
Tubbataha Reefs	March to June	Not stated	Not stated

Seasons and counts from the studies cited on this page; whether sharks are fed comes from the Oslob studies and the Palawan listing.¹³ ²⁰ ⁴ ¹⁹ ¹² ¹¹ ³

Bookable today

Three whale shark trips

Cebu: Oslob Whale Sharks Swimming & Kawasan Canyoneering

Site's own tour

Oslob and Kawasan

From Cebu City

Sharks: Fed, all year
Rating: 4.70
Price: from $127

See this trip

Puerto Princesa: Swim with Whale Sharks Boat Cruise

Not fed

Puerto Princesa cruise

From Puerto Princesa

Sharks: Not guaranteed
Rating: 4.30
Price: from $66

See this trip

Bohol: Whale Shark Snorkeling Experience

Bohol base

From Bohol

Ferry to Oslob

Sharks: Fed, at Oslob
Rating: 3.83
Price: from $125

See this trip

Decision helper

Which whale shark site suits you

Pick the line that fits your trip

I want a near-certain encounter I want sharks that are not fed I am staying on Bohol I travel in December to June I am a liveaboard diver

Oslob

Daily sightings since 2011.²¹

Palawan or Donsol

The Palawan cruise states its sharks are not fed.

The ferry tour

It lands at the Oslob pier.

Donsol is in season

Surveyed in those months.⁴

Tubbataha

Sharks reported from March to June.³

The Donsol whale shark season

Donsol, in Sorsogon province at the southern end of Luzon, is the site that started Philippine whale shark tourism.¹⁵ It quickly drew up to 27,000 tourists a season.¹¹ Here the sharks are not fed, and encounters depend on the season and on luck.

Researchers surveyed Donsol from tourism boats from December to June between 2007 and 2016.⁴ Counting records back to 1998, they identified 479 individual whale sharks there.¹⁹ The sharks spent an estimated 49.8 days in Donsol each season, with 47.1 to 60.8 present at any one time.²²

A Donsol whale shark trip is a different experience from Oslob. You search open water from a boat and jump in when a shark is spotted, and some days bring none. We found no Donsol listing on GetYourGuide, so trips there are arranged locally through the town.

Map

From Cebu City down the coast to the whale sharks

The road south to Oslob, the stretch of coast around the feeding area, and the other whale shark places of the Philippines.

Map of southern Cebu island from Cebu City and Mactan airport down the coast past Badian and Kawasan Falls to Oslob and Tan-awan — Cebu City to Oslob

Map of the coast south of Oslob town with Tan-awan, Tumalog Falls inland, and Sumilon Island with its sandbar offshore — The Oslob coast

Map of the Philippines with Oslob, Donsol, Honda Bay, Pintuyan, Tubbataha Reefs and Momo Beach on Bohol marked — Whale sharks in the Philippines

1
Mactan-Cebu International Airport
Airport pickup comes only with the private option of the booked tour.
In Google Maps ↗
2
Cebu South Bus Terminal
The Capitol-run terminal for buses south counts around 7,000 passengers on a weekday.²³
In Google Maps ↗
3
Kawasan Falls
Part of the Matutinao River canyon; the booked tour spends 3 hours canyoneering here.²⁴
In Google Maps ↗
4
Oslob
The town at the southern end of Cebu, 116 km from Cebu City.²⁵
In Google Maps ↗
5
Tan-awan
The feeding area lies 50 to 100 m off this village, with whale sharks fed from 06.00 to 13.00.²⁶
In Google Maps ↗
6
Tumalog Falls
A short drive from the whale shark site; one listing gives 10 minutes by car.
In Google Maps ↗
7
Sumilon Island
A 23-ha island managed as a reserve by Silliman University from 1974.²⁷
In Google Maps ↗
8
Sumilon sandbar
Depends on the tide and closes every third Wednesday of the month.
In Google Maps ↗
9
Donsol
479 whale sharks identified, 44% of the known Philippine population.¹⁹
In Google Maps ↗
10
Honda Bay
117 whale sharks identified in 2018 surveys off Palawan.¹²
In Google Maps ↗
11
Pintuyan
Whale shark ecotourism since 2006, sharks from December to June.¹¹
In Google Maps ↗
12
Tubbataha Reefs
Whale sharks reported seasonally, March to June.³
In Google Maps ↗
13
Momo Beach
Start of the Bohol listing that ferries guests to the Oslob pier.
In Google Maps ↗

Open the map in Google Maps

Checklist

Planning a whale shark trip anywhere

Before you book

Is the site in season?
Does the tour state the local rules?
Are local fees in the price?

On the day

Rash guard instead of sunscreen
Mask and snorkel that fit
Patience for a blank day at seasonal sites

Cost calculator

Whale shark trips for your group

Starting totals for the three bookable trips.

Oslob and KawasanFrom Cebufrom $127 Puerto PrincesaNot fedfrom $66 From BoholFerryfrom $125

People 2

Total from$253

per guest from $127

Check availabilityfree cancellation

Each total is the cheapest per-person fare listed on GetYourGuide times your group size, shown in your currency at the euro reference rate; your date and option set the final sum.

Video

We Swam with Whale Sharks in Donsol, Philippines

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Honda Bay, Southern Leyte and Tubbataha

Honda Bay near Puerto Princesa in Palawan is a more recently studied site. Between April and October 2018, researchers ran 159 surveys there and identified 117 individual whale sharks, almost all males with an average length of 4.5 m.¹² A boat cruise from Puerto Princesa searches the waters off the city for whale sharks, rated 4.30 from 137 reviews, from $66.

That cruise is honest about the difference from Oslob: its listing says sightings are not guaranteed because the sharks are in their natural habitat and are not fed, and trips can be cancelled for sea conditions. It leaves from Baywalk and relies on sightings shared by local fishermen.

Two more sites appear in the research. Pintuyan in Southern Leyte started whale shark ecotourism in 2006, with sharks from December to June.¹¹ Whale sharks are also reported seasonally, from March to June, at Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park in the Sulu Sea.³ Tubbataha is a remote dive destination reached on liveaboard boats rather than day trips.

Bohol whale shark tours: a ferry to Oslob

If you search for a Bohol whale shark tour, check where it goes. The Bohol listing on GetYourGuide starts at Momo Beach, takes a van and a 1.5-hour ferry, and lands its guests at the Oslob pier, from where a local jeep runs to the government-regulated whale shark area. The encounter itself is the Oslob one, about 30 minutes in the water after a safety briefing.

The listing says openly that the whale sharks are fed. It is rated 3.83 from 78 reviews and starts from $125. For a visitor based on Bohol, it saves the long road trip from Cebu City; for someone already in Cebu, a tour from the city does the same thing with a shorter journey.

The Bohol Sea itself, between Bohol and Mindanao, was a hunting ground for whale sharks until the late 1990s.¹⁴ Today the animals that cross it are protected, and the Bohol tours bring their guests to the feeding site across the strait.

What an open-water search is like

At a seasonal site the day looks nothing like the line of paddleboats at Tan-awan. You leave by motor boat, the crew scans the surface for a dark shadow or a dorsal fin, and when someone spots a shark the boat moves ahead of it. Then you slip into the water, mask on, and swim to meet it as it passes. The encounter may last seconds or several minutes, depending on the shark.

That makes fitness and comfort in open water more important than at Oslob. You may enter the water several times in a morning, each time in deep water far from shore, and swim hard for a short stretch. Practise with your mask and snorkel beforehand, and tell the crew honestly how confident you are.

It also changes what you can expect. A blank day is part of the deal, and the Palawan cruise says outright that sightings are not guaranteed. If you can live with that uncertainty, a wild shark appearing out of the blue feels like a different kind of encounter.

Choosing between Oslob and the seasonal sites

Choose Oslob if certainty matters most. Predictable daily sightings of large numbers of sharks have occurred there since provisioning began in 2011.²¹ The tour this site books combines it with a canyon afternoon, from $127.

Choose a seasonal site if you want sharks that are not fed and you can accept the chance of a blank day. Donsol and Southern Leyte have their seasons from December into June, Tubbataha from March to June.⁴ ¹¹ ³ Honda Bay was surveyed from April to October.¹²

Whatever you choose, the rules in the water are similar: keep your distance, do not touch and follow the briefing. Our page on the feeding research explains why Oslob is debated, and our rules page covers what the Oslob ordinance asks of swimmers.

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