Chances Of Seeing Whale Sharks Around La Paz During Season?

[cleung]

I know that the La Paz area has been known to have whale shark sightings when in season. Just wondering what the average success rate is (in seeing at least one whale shark)? I know that for the sea lions, they are pretty well 100% since the dive boats go to them at their colony. It would be nice to see both the sea lions and at least one whale shark on a trip to La Paz.

 

[ASA400]

While I haven't dived La Paz, I was on the Rocio Del Mar July 25-Aug 1 in the northern Sea of Cortez. They advertise whale shark sightings in the 90-95% range. And in fact, we dived with numerous whale sharks in Bahia de Los Angeles on July 31. I estimate that the three pangas holding our divers saw an average of 3-4 sharks per boat and we were all in different areas of the bay. I remember having at least 5 encounters with the sharks, with at least 3 distinct sharks being seen by our panga alone. These were smaller than the open ocean encounters, sharks averaging 12-25 feet in length. My feeling is that as long as there is adequate krill in attendance, you have a very good chance of seeing the whale sharks.

 

[cleung]

I'm also getting some conflicting info. Some of the dive op websites say that the whale shark season is during winter months while some say it is spring. So which is it?