The collaborative research among The University of Hong Kong (HKU), the University of Guam (UoG), and the Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines (LAMAVE) shows that whale shark tourism in Tan-awan, Oslob, Philippines has led to degradation of the local coral reef ecosystem. This study, which provides the first documentation of such ecological impact locally in Tan-awan, has recently been published in the scientific journal “Environmental Management”, and provided baseline data to measure future tourism management intervention and the shift towards a more sustainable tourism model.