Kathy Green
Google
The tour information center is an official office for whale shark tour in Donsol. Php5000 per boat (3 hours) for six people. We had 4 people and we booked our own boat. It is not guarantee to meet the whale shark, may be just 50/50 as they do not feed the whale shark so it's your luck.
Factors include weather, current, high / low tide, etc. If raining and no run lights then it's harder to find them. We went 3 days (raining on the first day) and we didn't meet them.
I didn't blame anyone as they were trying their best to look for the whale shark. And as a service provider, they do want to show you what they are proud of in their town. So I feel like it's a gambling that you choose to involve. And I love this giant animal so I am happy they are trying to protect their sea to keep the whale shark.
They only rely on human's eyes (stand on the top of the boat) to track the whale shark, the effectiveness can be improved by using more ways like Drone? They do not put gps tracker to the whale shark as they don't want to stress them.
Donsol is a nice town, road and river are very clean (unexpected !) and people are generally doing okay. They seem to have a good waste management system. Besides, no beggers on the street. If they can manage the stray dogs numbers then it will be even better. The dogs are okay and they just sleep around like they are part of the neighborhood. There is a famous active volcano but we haven't gone to.
I will come back another time to try my luck because I enjoy the time on the boat watching the sea and just focus on one thing.
By the way, the firefly watching tour is impressive because their protection to the river does play an important role for firefly's growing. Must go.