Anyone done Placencia Whale Shark dive?

[NCSCUBADOOBA]

We missed the window for the whale shark dive which started May 11th. It goes on a lunar cycle in the Spring time.
I wondered if anyone has done this before and did you see a whale shark when you did it?
What makes this an advanced dive?
We want to go back to Belize/Placencia just for this reason, but wonder how the actual dive is and what the odds are of seeing a whale shark.
Also, did anyone get any good snapshots of this????
Angela

 

[scubasimon]

Hi Angela,

I visited Placencia 6 months ago, though cannot speak for there Whaleshark trips as I did not have enough time and I am lucky enough to live and work on Utila in the Bays Islands 'just down the road' and have the opportunity to see whalesharks on a fairly regular basis.

Although they can be seen at any time of the month, there is evidence that they have cycles based around the moon. For example, today there were 4 sightings with snorkelling late afternoon around 15 minute boat trip from the bay, and last weekend a couple of days with great whaleshark experiences. Tomorrow is the full moon (Party!!!!).

If you're not an 'advanced' diver, then you still have the opportunity to get in and snorkel responsibly with the WSs here on your surface intervals.

Enjoy the experience, those things can be HUGE!!!

 

[Damselfish]

Probably they would call it advanced because the dives are on the deep side where you're more likely to see the sharks. We started by dropping down to about 80-90 feet or so then worked our way up. And it is blue water diving, no reference points and no bottom in sight, so you should have very good control of your bouyancy.

There is little else to see if you don't see sharks, or the big schools of fish whose spawn attract them. We weren't there at the right time and didn't see sharks, but did luck out and dive with dolphins for a few minutes right after jumping off the boat once. My husband wasn't ready at all but lucked out and got this pic.

 

[Hank49]

There's a pretty good chance you'll see sharks. Go with SeaHorse Dive Shop. They have it pretty wired. I was there on a private boat 3 years ago for one night and saw 6. As Damselfish said, it's kind of advanced because you're on your own... because most everyone is so engrossed in looking at the schools of fish or whale sharks and won't be watching you or your depth. It's often in blue water with no bottom in sight.

 

[occrider]

There's a pretty good chance you'll see sharks. Go with SeaHorse Dive Shop. They have it pretty wired. I was there on a private boat 3 years ago for one night and saw 6. As Damselfish said, it's kind of advanced because you're on your own... because most everyone is so engrossed in looking at the schools of fish or whale sharks and won't be watching you or your depth. It's often in blue water with no bottom in sight.

I've heard they are pretty good too. I was thinking about going down to Placencia while I was in belize in the hopes to see whale sharks. I didn't end up going, but I did a bunch of research to figure out when the best time to go was. The seahorse dive shop has a bunch of sighting graphs that can help you pick the optimal time to visit.

http://www.belizescuba.com/graphs.html

 

[NCSCUBADOOBA]

what a cute dolphin. almost like s/he is smiling at you!!!!