Marine life – Seaquest Dive Center

3 reasons you should not go to Oslob

Ben Meerhaeghe — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 07:55:49 +0000

You should avoid the Oslob whale shark attraction due to serious ethical and environmental concerns, primarily that it forces wild, migratory sharks to become reliant on human feeding. This practice disrupts their natural migration, causes malnutrition, results in physical injuries from boat propellers, and creates an overcrowded, unethical “zoo” experience.
While Oslob is a famous destination for swimming with whalesharks, there are significant ethical, environmental, and experiential reasons why many travelers and conservationists advise against visiting.

1. Ethical & Environmental Concerns

- Disrupted Migration: Whale sharks are naturally migratory. In Oslob, they are fed year-round to guarantee sightings, which disrupts their natural movement and may impact long-term breeding cycles.

- Poor Nutrition: The sharks are fed a limited diet of imported krill (uyap) that lacks the variety of nutrients they would get from foraging naturally in the wild.

- Behavioral Changes: Regular feeding conditions the sharks to associate boats and humans with food. This makes them more vulnerable to injuries from boat propellers and poaching in other regions.

- Physical Injuries: Sharks often develop white, spongy lesions around their mouths from repeatedly rubbing against the wooden outrigger boats during feeding.

2. Poor Visitor Experience

- Overcrowding: The site is often described as a “circus” or “human zoo.” You may be in the water with hundreds of other tourists at once, leading to a chaotic experience.

- Unnatural Interaction: Instead of seeing sharks swimming freely, you typically see them hanging vertically in the water to feed from boats.

- Safety Issues: In crowded or windy conditions, swimmers have reported being hit by boats or other tourists’ flippers.

- Strict Restrictions: To protect the sharks, you are forbidden from wearing sunscreen or using camera flashes.

3. Better Alternatives

If you want a more ethical encounter with whale sharks in their natural habitat, consider these locations in the Philippines:

DONSOL

Whaleshark Donsol

SOGOD BAY

Sogod Bay

Sleepy sponge crabs of Alona

Ben Meerhaeghe — Sun, 06 Oct 2024 04:04:35 +0000

Good evening y’all,

I am a sponge crab. I am a natural born tailor and love to dress up in beautiful outfits. Hide and seek is my favorite game.

If you spot me, you wouldn’t be forgetting my wacky appearance any time soon. I am that extravagant.

While other not-so-cool crabs rely on their hard shells, intricate patterns and pincers for protection, I use live sponges, or anemones – fashioning them to my own body and holding them in place like colourful hats.

There are many predators on the reef at night, looking for a tasty crab snack and they evolved many different methods of getting a bite out of us, so I have evolved to carry large pieces of camouflage to prevent being spotted by fish, octopus and other crabs.

My sponge isn’t just a disguise, it also serves as a shield. Some have a very good set of chemical defences to protect themselves from predation. Many produce toxins or otherwise obnoxious chemicals to deter predators – this gives me even more protection.

My sponge remains living while I carry it, I am not sure how it feels about being carried around though, we never start that conversation.

However despite being common, I am hard to find because of my deceptive headgear. It is a very effective camouflage, and the ladies love it.

You can find me at any given depth, as long as there are many rocks, cracks, corals and sponges to hide in.

My family (Dromiidae) is considered one of the most primitive groups of the true crabs, with remnants of a tail fan and more primitive reproductive biology in females.

My body anatomy is certainly very interesting for how I am evolutionarily related to other crustacea, but it is certainly my behaviours and quite comical appearance that makes me so unforgettable.

I appear to have a grumpy-looking face poking out from under my sponge cap, and at first sight I seem a bit clumsy walking around under water – but that is due to my oversized hat. I can even cut hats that allow me to glide down from the reef edge to the sandy bottom.

Come find me on your next night dive!

Click here if you want to see me on a date!!!

The deadly blue-ringed octopus of panglao

Ben Meerhaeghe — Sun, 15 Sep 2024 08:17:44 +0000

Allow me to introduce myself. I am the blue-ringed octopus, one of the most sought-after macro creatures in the ocean. I am gorgeous, stunning, and highly venomous. Divers from all over the world look for me so they can snap a picture of my beautiful blue rings. I don´t usually show these off, but when alarmed, I will flash my iridescent blue rings I have all over my head, body and tentacles.

Don´t be fooled by my adorability and small size: I am one of the ocean’s most venomous animals.

I belong to the cephalopods and can be found in the Pacific and Indian oceans, on coral reefs, and rocky areas of the seafloor. Occasionally you can spot me in tide pools, algal beds, or seagrass. I like the dark and love the nightlife so I emerge at night to hunt crustaceans and sometimes small fish.

Usually, I am incognito and just look cute, but I flash my blue rings as a warning to predators when I feel threatened, so they realize they shouldn´t mess with me.

I have thousands of chromatophores under my skin. These are specialized cells that allow me to change color instantaneously. I can put on a threat display using these cells and iridophores, a specialized type of light-reflecting chromatophore that gives me my iridescence.

Besides using my chromatophores to fight off predators, I use them to camouflage myself. Even though I spend a lot of my time tucked away in crevices, I have to come out in the open once in a while. I am very good at hiding in plain sight, from animals that might try to eat me.

Try and find me, if you can….

The colorful peacock mantis shrimp of Bohol

Ben Meerhaeghe — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 03:49:27 +0000

Allow me to introduce myself,

I am a peacock mantis shrimp, not shrimp, nor mantis, but one of the most magnificent creatures on the reef, you will ever meet. Find me anywhere between 3- 40m but spot me only when I allow you to see me. Usually I stay in my U-shaped burrow but spend some of my time exploring my area of the reef to hunt. I am a cocky, powerful, cool, creatively violent giant crustacean that loves to smash up gastropods, mollusks, crabs and fish, for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

My technicolor attire stands out and screams out “Don’t mess with me!” I have very complex compound eyes, giving me trinocular vision, allowing me to hunt precisely, even only with one eye.
My hammer-like appendages can crack any crab’s shell or dismember any fellow citizen on the reef that crosses my path. My punch is faster than a speeding bullet, so fast, it boils the water around it. You are scared of sharks? Lol, I am by far the most aggressive inhabitant of the reef.

Find me while I’m out hunting for food, or peaking out of one the entrances to my home. Just remember, I will always spot you first. See you when I see you.