Whale sharking on Utila varies enormously in price and how your encounter will be. This comes down to a number of things, but mainly the dive center you are with, the boat captains skill and experience (key), how well briefed and behaved the snorkelers are, and how timid the shark is.
We routinely make two north side dives when we go north side and this helps with whale shark encounters - more time spent in the right places. Yesterday morning we were in Turtle Harbour and Don Quixset (for those that know them) and there were Whale Sharks coming up off both areas, and even more down towards Raggedy Cay.
During the morning we swam with 3 different individuals - all with vertical feeding behavior - with encounters that lasted between 2 to 10 minutes. If the boat captain had placed the boat differently, if people had been badly briefed, if the sharks were not relaxed (too many encounter boats, etc) I am sure these would have been the 20sec variety of encounter - seeing a tail disappear into the depths, if you are lucky.
Between whale shark encounters we also had spinner dolphins playing in the bow wave of the boat! Not bad for one morning
The dives were pretty good as well!
So, as soon as the boat came back we turned it around and sent out our customers that hadn't been on the morning boat, DMTs, and some dive staff. We charged only $20 per person to non-staff, just to cover our fuel costs, plus we ask a tip for the boat captain if you get to see a whale shark in the water. A total of $30 for something that costs more like $150 in Holbox.
We knew the whale sharks would be there and that the encounters would be good, at least if the morning was anything to go by. We could have charged $50 or $60 per person, or even more, but chose not to.
In the end the afternoon encounters were easily as good as the mornings, and I think probably surpassed the quality of encounter. Maybe because the sharks had less boats around (no other dive centers or resorts went out in the afternoon).
Then an amazing bonus of passing Sperm Whales, again spotted by our boat captain, but were another 15 minutes out from the island into the very deep water of the trench. Unfortunately no great pictures - they move fast!
For me running a trip like this is an investment - we rely on a lot of word of mouth recommendation and yesterday I sent 30 people away jumping up and down with excitement!
From OW students to experienced fun divers to DMTs. We covered our costs, everyone had a great time, many possibly had a once in a life time experience, and I have 30 people out there talking about the encounter trips with us.
Christmas whale sharks are back, unfortunately a period of bad weather is going to stop us getting out north side until this weekend has passed. But then conditions are looking ideal - calm weather & flat seas. I hope we'll be encountering again on Christmas Day just as we have the last 2 Christmas mornings.
Just to finish up - I have had whale shark experiences just like diversteves, however we try to make those the exception rather than the norm. Occasionally the shark is just too skittish, too many boats, too many people in the water around the shark and then sometimes compounded by people who don't know or don't respect encounter guidelines. Plus resorts have a lot of pressure on them to find and deliver whale shark encounters. When this happens we will generally give up, take some of the pressure of the sharks and return later in the day - just as we did yesterday.
Diving and whale sharks don't go together well, they are too fast for you to keep up with wearing a scuba unit, plus they change depth way too fast, diving god knows how deep and then straight back up to the surface again. When done well a snorkeling encounter will be way more rewarding than one on scuba, plus the risks are much smaller with snorkeling.
