A Shark Curiosity - Where is Big Jim?

A Shark Curiosity - Where is Big Jim?

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

     When I was way younger (4th year High school if I remember correctly) my Uncle Rey and I went on a trip to Boracay. Well this is starting out to be like one of those trips where you socialize with a lot of girls and wake up drunk and naked. Only I'm not the social type and my excitement in going to Boracay lay more in seeing things rather than getting drunk somewhere on the beach. Forgive me , I was young once.

     As it turns out Boracay is only an hour boat ride from Tablas Island from Looc. So after an hour ride by jeep to Looc , we finally got to talk to a boatman who would take us. Most of them were hesitant because of the strong swells that day but mostly for another reason. We wouldn't particularly know until we were in open sea.

     The local boatmen then began turning to the side of the island and stuck close there for awhile , observant as I was I asked why we did this , aside from the thrill of having dangerous waves that might smash us to shallow rocks there has to be some other way to navigate.So I asked. The boatmen were spooked of a big shark in the area that they called Big Jim. They usually caught of sight him in the open waters near this place and it has been known to hit boats really hard. They didn't tell me of any casualties that were credited to this shark (maybe not to spook me but there was that hint that the Shark did kill someone) but they did tell me that if we ever saw it , it would be as large as the whole boat we were currently sitting in. And that would be bigger than 8 feet. The Katig boat I was travelling in didn't seem like it was a big match for Jaws anytime soon but there was a weird fascination in me about seeing it. I went up to the small roof (mostly because I was about to throw up lunch and breakfast) when it was really time to go to open waters. I wanted to catch a glimpse of this shark. I wanted to see if the thing the boatmen were afraid of was real. what I saw were big waves that were rocking us really good. Good throw up motions. No fin breaking from the water at any other point.

     In the end I saw more of my food on the ocean rather than the big shark after succumbing to the really violent waves. We never talked about it and until this day I have never heard of Big Jim ever again. I wonder if its still out there between the islands of Romblon.