By J. Jala | 05:03 PM February 26, 2020
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in Central Visayas (BFAR-7) has discouraged the public from touching or disturbing the sharks sighted at the coastal waters off Barangay Pasil in Santander town in southern Cebu.
In a statement released this afternoon, BFAR-7 said that residents in the area should also refrain from “touching and disturbing” these sharks.
The BFAR-7 statement said that juvenile sharks would swim away when they would sense people in their vicinity.
BFAR-7 said that the Cebu Provincial Fishery Office (PFO) had already coordinated with the Municipal Agriculture Office in Santander to verify the presence of sharks in their area.
Cebu PFO officer-in-charge Edgardo Delfin said the municipal fishery technician reported that these are actually juvenile blacktip sharks scrambling for food near the shores.
“People should not be afraid. The presence of these sharks does not pose danger especially to people swimming there. They do not bite not unless they are threatened or harmed,” he said, adding that the juvenile sharks also swim away once they sense people.
Delfin said this event is only a normal phenomenon because these young sharks commonly show up in the months of February and March. These young sharks feed themselves with small fishes.
The sharks were found at the shallow waters near the marine sanctuary in Barangay Pasil, Santander. Any economic or fishing activities are prohibited at the marine sanctuary.