Clarification: whale shark season in Darwin & Wolf

[advance]

Hello,

I am currently looking into booking a liveaboard cruise in the Galapagos, from the 7 currently available ships. Diving with huge schools of hammerheads up above, and especially with whale sharks is a dream I've been having for years now, having seen such amazing videos as this one:

Galapagos 2010 on Vimeo
[hmmmpph, forum newbies can't post URLs. Search for "Galapagos 2010 by Darek Sepiolo site:vimeo.com" on Google]

(By the way, anyone else have the feeling the colors have been made more vivid by some sort of editing in this video? That can't be real!)

I've done a lot of reading on this subject on various websites and talked to a few experienced people, and I've heard conflicted definitions of "whale shark season", ranging from May to December, August to September and even December to April! Since the whale sharks are the main attraction for me, I'd like to know - what truly is "whale shark season"?

If you oculd book a liveaboard cruise in either May or August, which would you pick? How about June? What chance do I have to see whale sharks in Darwin & Wolf during these 3 months?

Thanks a lot!

 

[RJP]

We were there in October and saw whale sharks on every single dive at Wolf and Darwin.

 

[advance]

We were there in October and saw whale sharks on every single dive at Wolf and Darwin.

RJP, that's great! Is it true what they say, that after a few dives you begin exclaiming "oh, another whale shark" and "oh, just another huge school of hammerheads"?

What about the weather, and its effect on land-based attractions and tours?

October is sadly not currently an option for me..

 

[advance]

Since it is on topic, I should share an interesting academic project that I've read about, called Migramar [can't post a link, newbie forum user, just search Migramar in Google]. They track various shark species and attempt to identify their migratory patterns, site fidelity and census year-wide in three major locations (among others): Galapagos, Cocos and Malpelo islands.

An interesting quote from their research results page:

... April and May seem to be months where less hammerheads are recorded in Galapagos, but where the greatest numbers are recorded in Cocos islands ...

and another one, from their Site Fidelity page:

... We have also found that where hammerhead sharks are abundant, there is often a high abundance of other pelagic species ...

I guess that really says a lot about diving in the Galapagos around April/May.

 

[ronscuba]

I went in August and saw 14 whale sharks.

The whale sharks were awesome, but so were the hammerheads, seals, schools of barracuda, and other fish schools.

 

[RJP]

Is it true what they say, that after a few dives you begin exclaiming "oh, another whale shark" and "oh, just another huge school of hammerheads"?

Nope.

:cool2:

Here's me pictured with "just another whale shark"

 

[Mossman]

I've done a lot of reading on this subject on various websites and talked to a few experienced people, and I've heard conflicted definitions of "whale shark season", ranging from May to December, August to September and even December to April! Since the whale sharks are the main attraction for me, I'd like to know - what truly is "whale shark season"?

If you oculd book a liveaboard cruise in either May or August, which would you pick? How about June? What chance do I have to see whale sharks in Darwin & Wolf during these 3 months?

I understand the peak season runs roughly between May and November. My first trip was in June and whale sharks were spotted on about half the dives we did at Darwin. When I booked my second trip, we decided to go right in the middle of "the season", i.e. August, and we spotted whale sharks on all our dives at Darwin.

May to December is close enough, August to September is correct but too narrow. Whoever told you December through April doesn't know what he or she is talking about.

The problem with August, besides the possibility of being bored with "just another whale shark" (though that didn't happen to any of us!), is that the water is the coldest in that month and it can be rougher. June felt much warmer, especially in the central islands.

If you had to pick between May or June, I'd go with June as it's closer to the peak of the season. Even so, none of these creatures run exactly on a Swiss train schedule, and it's possible to be disappointed even in the middle of the season as some posted here just this year.

 

[advance]

Mossman - thank you for the excellent response!

Am I right in saying that if you had to choose between middle of May and August, you'd choose August?

The only other thing that I'm still considering is the on-land attractions. I guess August is a good month for these, too, correct?

 

[merxlin]

We went the first week of September this year. There were a few sightings the weeks before, none on our boat, and only one that week on any of the boats that I know of, and similar for a couple weeks after. Viz was poor (green) but that's just the way it is with ocean currents. All the planning in the world doesn't keep mother nature from doing her thing!

 

[DiveTheGalapagos]

To me, whale shark season is July - Nov. May is probably not, June and Dec a maybe. Last year (2010), everything was different due to having an El Nino in the first few months followed by a very cold La Nina. It was amazing that some people didn't see whale sharks several weeks of peak season. It is normalizing again, so one would assume (if history is correct) that it will be the same as it is without the weather phenomenons.

I've never heard of anyone considering May whale shark season. In fact, this year, for the first time, both the Humboldt Explorer and Deep Blue are offering low season rates that end in mid-May.