whale sharks late june

[mstevens]

The boat was a modified cigarette boat, so it was quite fast. I know we ended up fairly far north of Isla Mujeres but we likely stopped a bit south of Isla Holbox.

As for the whys - it was our second trip to Cozumel and our first with our son. We were with a dive op that I later came to know as being very, very flaky (as in they blew off an entire week's reservations the final time we tried diving with them), but which was good for our then-beginner diver kid.

They said they were putting together a whale shark trip so there'd be no diving with them the following day, so we signed up. It turns out we were the only paying customers on the boat with the 2 boat crew, the late-middle aged shop owner, his very young, shapely, clothing-averse instructor girlfriend, and his young son. It was an odd trip in a number of ways and almost certainly not the best way to do it.

 

[cvchief]

only paying customers on the boat with ... his very young, shapely, clothing-averse instructor girlfriend

Got a number?

 

[mstevens]

I used to. They all seem to have scarpered off somewhere.

 

[Christi]

June is definitely a good time to see the Whale Sharks

 

[docmartin]

I heard early in the season you are more likely to see mantas with the whale sharks.

 

[Mossman]

They said they were putting together a whale shark trip so there'd be no diving with them the following day, so we signed up. It turns out we were the only paying customers on the boat with the 2 boat crew, the late-middle aged shop owner, his very young, shapely, clothing-averse instructor girlfriend, and his young son. It was an odd trip in a number of ways and almost certainly not the best way to do it.

Forget the whale sharks, they're boring after a while. How much to snorkel with a boatload of clothing-averse girlfriends?

 

[PARADISE HUNTER]

My understanding is that the the chemicals used to clean up the BP oil disaster have killed the plankton that attracted the whale sharks to the Holbox area. As a result, the boat ride from Holbox is much farther than before. The suggested trip is out of Cancun and is supposedly less than an hour.

PH

 

[cvchief]

My understanding is that the the chemicals used to clean up the BP oil disaster have killed the plankton that attracted the whale sharks to the Holbox area. As a result, the boat ride from Holbox is much farther than before. The suggested trip is out of Cancun and is supposedly less than an hour.

PH

Out of Cancun would be relatively the same thing as out of Mujeres, I guess?

 

[JFS]

Last season mantas were in the whale shark area past isla mujares from June until September. We saw mantas on every weekly trip and saw a lot at the end of august. You can see mantas as early as february. Season starts May 20th, looking forward to it again.

 

[Mike]

My understanding is that the the chemicals used to clean up the BP oil disaster have killed the plankton that attracted the whale sharks to the Holbox area. As a result, the boat ride from Holbox is much farther than before. The suggested trip is out of Cancun and is supposedly less than an hour.

PH

Huh? Is this what the Holbox operators are saying?

The Holbox operators are going out to the Isla Mujeres congregation site because the word is out that you can see whale sharks in pure blue waters with great visibility instead of green plankton filled waters with low viz as are the conditions typical of Holbox. It's been my understanding there were more than just harsh words passed between the Holbox operators and the newer upstart Isla Mujeres operators as the Holbox operators got angrier and angrier that the new Isla Mujeres operators have all but destroyed the old Holbox operators business due to the discovery of the new site that all the Isla operators have been exploiting the last 5 years.

Isn't the much farther trip from Holbox actually the trip taking their customers to the Isla Mujeres site? I've personally seen the Holbox boats there, as you can't miss them since they've got huge advertisements written on their pontoons for Holbox.

---------- Post added April 27th, 2014 at 04:58 PM ----------

Last season mantas were in the whale shark area past isla mujares from June until September. We saw mantas on every weekly trip and saw a lot at the end of august. You can see mantas as early as february. Season starts May 20th, looking forward to it again.


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You know what I found weird is the last trip we did it was bad weather to see the whale sharks, but the mantas seemed to be out in large numbers. I'm not sure if there is any correlation to the mantas liking a different weather pattern than the whale sharks and that when the whale sharks are staying down the mantas are in more abundance. But what was kind of sad was that none of the boats had any interest in swimming with the mantas. We kept floating around waiting for the VHF to light up with some sightings of whale sharks and meanwhile it's manta sighting after manta sighting and I'm just sitting in the boat drooling over the mantas, so after the 3rd time of mentioning them to the crew and asking why we weren't swimming with them, they finally relented, but they kind of acted like I was nuts and finally let us get in the water to check them out, I had three of them swimming all around me for awhile, and then of course as luck would have it they finally had a whale shark sighting and they ordered everybody out of the water so the entire fleet could pounce on the single whale shark that was out that day.

I personally would have been happy to have spent more time enjoying the mantas, but the guides don't seem to understand it or don't put any emphasis on them. I know on that trip they all wanted a whale shark so they could avoid having to give any refunds, but I would have taken swimming with mantas all day versus the experience of 40 boats all pounding on the single whale shark that day. They seemed to treat mantas like fisherman treat and classify trash fish versus what they treat as trophy fish.