Last week I was walking along the beach at Lobo in Batangas Province and noticed a bit of excitement happening.
As I got closer I could see that the locals had captured a large type of shark? I am not sure how they captured it, perhaps it got tied up in a fishing net. The animal had some rough handling by the locals (tied up with ropes, and being prodded in the mouth with bamboo poles) and was on its last legs as they hauled it up on the beach.
The police arrived on the scene and asked me (the only foreigner there) if I could identify the type of shark as the locals had no idea what it was. My knowledge of marine animals is very limited, and my best guess was it was some type of whale shark although it had a tail something similar to a thresher shark. It appeared to be a animal that would eat shrimps and other small sea life through filtering rather than chewing up bigger fish as it did not appear to have teeth. It was about five to six metres from nose to tail. I have attached a few pictures to see if someone can identify the type of shark. Unfortunately it seemed everytime I took a picture a local managed to stand in front of the camera.
