This video says about itself:
The rare Megamouth shark and others, the blue shark, leopard shark, angel shark, horn shark and swell shark and some hatching from eggs.
From Wildlife Extra:
Rare Megamouth shark found in Philippines
07/04/2009 09:44:05
April 2009. Fishermen based in Donsol in the Philippines were trawling for mackerel when they caught a strange large shark from a depth of approximately 200 metres. WWF‘s satellite tagging initiatives have already shown that pelagic filter feeders such as whale sharks and manta rays regularly prowl through the region. It was only a matter of time before something else was discovered.
The shark was brought to Barangay Dancalan for assessment. WWF Donsol Project Manager Elson Aca identified it as a megamouth shark.
Rarest known shark – Only 40 have ever been recorded
Rarest of all sharks, the megamouth (Megachasma pelagios) is a fairly recent scientific discovery, with just over 40 recorded encounters worldwide. The first specimen was caught off Oahu, Hawaii in 1976. So different was it from all other sharks that it necessitated the creation of an entirely new family and genus – prompting the scientific community to hail it as the 20th century’s most significant marine find – rivalling the rediscovery of the coelacanth in 1938.
Megamouth 41
Megamouth 41, as named by the Florida Museum of Natural History, measured four metres and weighed an estimated 500 kilograms. Facial scars indicated a protracted struggle with the fishers’ gill-nets while stomach contents revealed it was feeding on shrimp larvae.
The megamouth shark is so named for its enormous maw – almost a metre wide and lined with a brilliant silver band to attract planktonic prey in the depths. It is a poor swimmer which ranges sporadically throughout the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Males average four metres while females – which give birth to live young – grow to five.
Relatively little was known of their habits until megamouth 6 was fitted with a pair of ultrasonic transmitters and tracked for two days in 1990. The exercise indicated that the sharks spend the daytime in waters up to a kilometre deep and surface only at night to feed on plankton, small fish and jellyfish – usually at a depth of around 15 meters.
One of only 3 filter feeding sharks
Together with the basking and whale shark, the megamouth is one of only three filter-feeding shark species. It is classified globally by the IUCN as data deficient – but only because so few have ever been studied.
Eight megamouth sharks, a full fifth of all recorded encounters, have now been caught in Philippine waters. Four were caught in Cagayan de Oro and one each in Negros, Iloilo and Cebu. Megamouth 41 was the very first to have been caught in Luzon.
See also here.
Underwater photography: marine wildlife off British shores: here.
Underwater photography competition winners announced: here.
100 trucks worth of illegal timber seized from Philippines last old growth forests: here.
Visayan Spotted deer still surviving on remote Philippine islands: here.
Mackerel sharks: here.
NHM: Rare angel shark arrives at Museum: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Rare plant, frog found in Negros forest
By Carla Gomez
Inquirer Visayas
First Posted 19:58:00 04/20/2009
Filed Under: Animals, Environmental Issues, Conservation
BACOLOD CITY, Philippines—Rare plant and frog species were found by a team of environmentalists from the United Kingdom and the Philippines.
This was after the joint team conducted a two-week biological expedition into the interior of the North Negros Natural Park (NNNP).
This proves the area has critical biological worth that should make Filipinos proud, according to expedition leader James Sawyer.
With a land area of 80,454 hectares, the NNNP is the largest forested area on Negros Island and is home to many rare, endemic and endangered species. It covers the cities of Talisay, Silay, Victorias, Cadiz, Sagay and San Carlos and the towns of E.B. Magalona, Murcia, Toboso, Calatrava and Don Salvador Benedicto.
Sawyer is a veteran of many similar expeditions to 25 countries and has managed the Negros Rainforest Conservation Project for five years.
Team member Dr. Craig Turner, an environmental management expert, said they had never seen anything quite like the NNNP interior, which he described as “very exciting.”
“This is definitely a unique environment–the center of this park has the most pristine rainforest we have ever seen anywhere in the world,” he said.
Sawyer said on Sunday the team found a cloud forest. According to Merriam-Webster online dictionary, a cloud forest is a wet tropical mountain forest found at an altitude of between 1,000 and 2,500 meters. It is characterized by a profusion of epiphytes and the presence of clouds even in the dry season.
Sawyer said the team saw lots of strange-looking insects and frogs, which they could not identify as they were not found in the standard field guides. They would have to show pictures of the unidentified species to specialists, he said.
Aside from finding several never-before-seen plant and frog species, the team also found droppings of the Visayan spotted deer and what was left of palm trees, which the animal had eaten, Sawyer said.
The presence of the Visayan spotted deer, one of the rarest mammals in the world and considered endangered, was an important discovery, he said.
According to Sawyer, for the past 10 years, there has been no evidence that the animal still exists in the wild.
“We believe there are two distinct populations of the Visayan spotted deer in the NNNP interior. We covered only about one percent, which is great news,” he said.
Sawyer said the team took samples of the deer’s droppings, which they would turn over to the Negros Forests and Ecological Foundation Inc. (NFEFI) and the Silliman University (SU) for analysis. This would allow them to learn more about the diet of the Visayan spotted deer and help those being raised in captivity.
The NFEFI based in Bacolod City and SU in Dumaguete City have been breeding the spotted deer in captivity.
Sawyer stressed that specimens of the rare plant and frog species they found should be taken out of the forest as proof of their existence. However, the team was not able to collect specimens because the objective of their two-week expedition was only to conduct a rapid biodiversity assessment.
Sawyer said they would like to go back in 18 to 24 months with more specialists to prove to the scientific world there were undiscovered species in the NNNP.
He added that although the NNNP was not the biggest patch of forest, it was certainly one of the most important forests in the world.
The park is 80,454 hectares, with only 16,487 hectares of forest remaining.
Sawyer said the expedition to the interior of the park took five days of hard trekking. The team was composed of six Britons, one Irish and five Filipinos.
The expedition was undertaken in partnership with the NFEFI and the Coral Cay Conservation (CCC), a not-for-profit volunteering organization that trains teams in conservation skills to conserve some of the world’s most endangered and remote coral reefs and rainforests. The NFEFI and the CCC have done biodiversity surveys in parts of the NNNP covering Talisay, Murcia and Silay between 1999 and 2006.
Sawyer lauded the NFEFI for protecting the NNNP despite limited funds. He also recognized the contributions of the Filipino members of the team.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20090420-200443/Rare-plant-frog-found-in-Negros-forest
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Plastics, nails found inside ‘butanding’
By Tina Santos, Alcuin Papa
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:53:00 10/29/2009
Filed Under: Animals, Pollution, Climate Change
MANILA, Philippines—Plastic products and nails were found in the stomach of a dead female whale shark that fishermen found early Wednesday morning near the Manila Bay breakwater just a stone’s throw from the Manila Yacht Club.
These were the initial findings of a necropsy performed Wednesday afternoon on the whale shark (popularly known in the country as butanding), said Theresa Mundita Lim, director of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau.
Lim said her office would conduct laboratory tests and analysis on the blood and tissue of the fish to see if it was poisoned. The results would be available in two weeks.
The whale shark (Rhincodon typus), estimated to be at least 2 years old, was 17 ½-feet (5.2 meters) long and weighed more than a ton.
Eyes gouged out
Greg Yan, information officer of the World Wide Fund for Nature-Philippines (WWF-Philippines), said his group had named the whale shark “Bulag” (blind) after discovering strange injuries to both its eyes.
“The eyes were virtually gouged out,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Yan said the whale shark was the third large sea creature to have died in Manila Bay in the past three years. In December 2008, the lifeless body of a baleen whale was found floating beside a passenger ship moored in Manila Bay. In August 2007, another baleen whale carcass was found floating at the mouth of the bay.
Joggers startled
The discovery of a dying whale shark near the Cultural Center of the Philippines startled joggers who frequented the area and caused heavy traffic on the south-bound lane of Roxas Boulevard as motorists slowed.
Melchor Cariño, a fisherman in the area, said he and three of his colleagues were about to go fishing when they saw the whale shark, which they initially mistook as a log.
“It appeared very weak, it was already floating on its side so we decided to tie a rope around it then towed it toward the shore so rescuers can revive it. But it died on our way to the shore,” Cariño said in Filipino.
He said that while he and the others were towing the whale shark, a fish which was about 2-feet long, was seen hovering around as if following them. It left eventually, Cariño said.
He said it took his group almost two hours towing the whale shark to the shore near the Manila Yacht Club.
“It was so heavy,” he said, adding he was surprised at his rare find. “It was my first time to see a fish as huge as that.”
Spotted couple of times
But another fisherman, Atom Hara, claimed to have seen the whale shark on the same spot a couple of times before.
“I saw it in the same area last Monday. But prior to that, I saw it hovering around a docked ship, as if it was playing,” Hara said.
Once on shore, Cariño said he immediately went to report the incident to a radio station located at the nearby Cultural Center of the Philippines.
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), informed of the find, towed the whale shark to their headquarters and called the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).
Pollution
Edwin Alesna, chief of the fisheries, quarantine and wildlife regulations section of BFAR, said his office was looking at pollution in the bay as one of the possible causes of death of the whale shark.
“We have to conduct a necropsy to determine what really caused its death,” Alesna said. “We have to dissect its tummy to see if it was able to swallow trash, like plastics or heavy metals, which eventually caused its death,” he added.
Manila Bay is considered one of the most polluted bodies of water in the country.
City workers of Manila regularly haul off truckloads of refuse, consisting mostly of bamboo, wooden planks, food wrappers and drink containers, pieces of rubber and styrofoam from the bay.
“Unfortunately, we are the catch basin (of garbage). Manila is low lying, and trash from other cities accumulate here,” a city official said in previous interviews.
Alesna said it was also likely that the whale shark surfaced at the shallow part of Manila Bay because it was not feeling well or it was looking for food.
“The presence of whale sharks could indicate the return of a strong food base. The whale shark was probably attracted to the plankton abundant in the area. They go where their food is,” the BFAR official added.
Alesna said the whale shark was not a victim of a boat strike as no external injury was found on its body.
“It had superficial bruises, which could have been caused by the towing, but it had no external injury,” he said.
The whale shark will be buried at the bureau’s graveyard for marine animals in Dagupan, Pangasinan.
Climate change
Lim said she had been directed by Environment Secretary Lito Atienza to test the quality of water at Manila Bay.
“He wants a check at the quality of water Wednesday and Thursday to determine if it or the pollution of Manila Bay had an effect on the death of the whale shark,” Lim said.
“We’re also looking if its death was climate change-induced. We’re looking at trends because out-of-habitat sightings of marine animals could be an indication of the effect of the impending climate change,” she said.
More sightings
Whale sharks have been known to aggregate in Donsol, Sorsogon. But BFAR officials and the environment group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said more and more sightings of the giant fish are being reported in Batangas and Quezon.
She said this was the first time a whale shark was sighted in Manila Bay.
“Scenarios like beaching of whales are called out-of-habitat sightings. These are signs of climate change,” Lim said.
She said changes in sea temperature and water currents could be adversely affecting marine animals, leading them to erratic behavior like beaching.
Krill, plankton
Lim said it was likely the female whale shark followed krill and plankton, its primary food, until it wandered into Manila Bay.
“We have been noticing a high number of krill and plankton in Manila Tuesday and Wednesday,” Lim said.
Whale sharks are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as “vulnerable” to extinction and are protected by Philippine law under Republic Act No. 8550 and Fisheries Administrative Order No. 193.
Since 1998, WWF has been spearheading whale shark conservation in the Philippines, working closely with coastal communities and the local government of Donsol in an ecotourism package to protect the whale sharks.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20091029-232826/Plastics-nails-found-inside-butanding
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