Clarification: whale shark season in Darwin & Wolf

[Mossman]

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.

Call me corrected, permanent narcosis has set in. June-November it shall be.

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?

It would have been even more excellent if I got the dates right

If whale sharks are your number one priority and the chillier water temps won't kill you, then yes, you'd be best off going in August. Definitely forget about May. June should be OK, especially later in the month, but only the sharks know for sure.

As for the land tours, I believe whale shark season mostly overlaps with the colder rainy season (la garua, IIRC). This can be a boon if you don't like the hot sun beating down on you while walking around for hours, but it can suck if you don't like cold and potential rain; plus, sun helps for land photography since you can't use a flash. On the boat, when you're already chilled from your dive and peeling off your wetsuit in the cold, rainy, windy air, it can really suck - especially when you have shower hogs aboard). We lucked out during our land tours on my last trip, having very nice weather. However, when we went into town (Puerto Ayora) on the last day, it was a deluge. We ended up waiting out the worst of it sitting in the bar of one of the nicer hotels watching the practically horizontal rain and the big waves crashing into the harbor and had a good time of it - any day in the Galapagos is still a great day.


It takes true grit to brave the conditions that time of year in order to see the whale sharks, but you appreciate them much more for that. If anyone could see them on a quick jaunt to Key Largo, they'd be as boring as groupers.

 

[mjh]

As other have mentioned, you never know with mother nature. We were on the trip with RJP and stayed on the boat for another week of diving. On that trip we only saw one whale shark on one dive. The other panga group saw none. Trip report, Multimedia show at our site: aquabluedreams.com

 

[Manuel Sam]

Advance,

I think that when you add up all of the collective wisdom and experience expounded above, the key takeaways are that (1) yes, there is a peak season for whalesharks, and it's around June/July to November (myself, I prefer September-October); and (2) you can try to put the odds in your favor, but it's still Mother Nature, so there is still the element of luck. Conditions and currents in the Galapagos can change from day to day - what might have been a sure bet can quickly turn into a huge disappointment......or vice-versa.

Here's a summary of trips that friends and/or I have been in:

Nov. 2000 (friends) - 13 sightings
Nov. 2000 (friends -1 trip later) - 0 sightings
May 2001 - 0 sightings
Nov. 2001 - 0 sightings
Oct. 2005 - 0 sightings (when I boarded the boat, I was told 15 sightings the prev. trip, 0 sightings 2 trips before). I later learned that there had been 19 sightings the trip after. I was beginning to think that my middle name was spelled J-I-N-X.
Nov. 2005 (friends) - 12 sightings
Oct. 2007 - 32 sightings

If you are willing to put in the effort, you could also go to the Aggressor website and look at the Captain's Log for their two Galapagos boats to see what the best months were.

I haven't been back since the 2007 trip, in part because now the odds are really stacked against me, but mostly because since then, prices have gone thru the roof and it's much harder nowadays to get trips that are longer than 7 days.

Now, no one would ever question the wisdom of diving in the Galapagos to see all of the amazing, and in some cases unique, animals that can be encountered there in addition to whalesharks. It is a world-class dive destination that I highly recommend to all my diving friends.

Nor would the wisdom of traveling all the way to Galapagos from the Middle East to not just see whalesharks, but bus-size (50-foot) whalesharks, be questioned.

BUT, if, as you said, whalesharks are your main attraction, I'd say that there are many other whaleshark meccas that you can go to, probably cheaper, closer to a sure bet and/or lesser travel for you.

You are a lot closer to Djibouti, which is another whaleshark hotspot (don't know the seasons, tho). I've also heard that Tofo in Mozambique is good.

If you are willing to settle for just snorkeling and freediving with whalesharks, Isla Mujeres in Mexico (200 to possibly 300 in a one square mile area) is, in my view, the closest thing to a guarantee. In fact, after Isla Mujeres (suggest July-August), you might not only say "oh, just another whaleshark", you might not even need to see another one again for a while. The whalesharks here are about 30 ft. max tho - no bus-size.

Other whaleshark snorkelling hotspots are Holbox in Mexico, Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia, and Donsol in the Philippines.

 

[advance]

Hi Manuel Sam,

Thanks for the very thorough response!

I am indeed coming from the Middle East to the Galapagos, but it will not be my first destination. I will be backpacking, starting in Ushuaia, Argentina (in Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost city in the world - or so they claim.) in a few weeks, and then going north on the border to Chile, to reach Brazil and then - well, I don't know. I am looking for good, interesting, cheap diving sites. The trip will be "on a shoestring", except for the Galapagos - which are a dream of mine for a long while now.

Whale sharks are the main attraction, but huge schools of hammerheads are a close second, and of course the mantas, eagle rays, Galapagos sharks, Silky sharks, etc. Not to mention the avian, reptile and mammal life in the central islands.. the variety and health of the underwater eco-system in the Galapagos is astounding..

I was considering Cocos and Malpelo islands instead of Galapagos, but since they go for about the same price - I decided to go with Darwin's inspiration.

I'd still like to hear of any other recommendations for dive trips that you can suggest, in central and/or south America, especially "good deals". I've heard much about Bonaire and heard that it can be done on a budget, save the flights. Belize is also an interesting destination, or so I've heard.

 

[ronscuba]

Belize and Bonaire is warm water tropical Caribbean diving. They are popular destinations for Americans because of location. You'll get much better tropical diving in the Red Sea, Maldives and Southeast Asia.

Have you priced out diving at Galapagos Wolf & Darwin ?

 

[advance]

What do you mean by "priced out"?

How about other South American and Central American destinations? I live by the Red Sea, so I'm used to these kinds of dives..

 

[sansky]

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!

AUGUST!!! I have been twice in August and seen hundreds of hammerheads and at least 25-30 whale shark encounters on both trips - GOING BACK IN AUGUST 2012!!!

 

[ronscuba]

What do you mean by "priced out"?

How about other South American and Central American destinations? I live by the Red Sea, so I'm used to these kinds of dives..

Sorry, priced out is American slang for researched the total costs.

Diving Galapagos Wolf and Darwin is very expensive. It's liveaboard only. Costs add up fast. The airfare, liveaboard, nitrox, tips, etc..

I suggest you consider Cocos, Galapagos liveaboard, or if that is too expensive, Galapagos landbased.

 

[DiveTheGalapagos]

Hi Ronscuba...just fyi...there are still some spaces on our Scubaboard charter for Aug 15 at $3995 which includes cruise, flights, National Park entrance fees, fuel surcharge, Nitrox, hotel for one night in Quito and mainland airport transfer.

As for land-based, island hopping dive tours from the same boat are now illegal. Bummer as they were great trips...1 boat, 1 guide, 1 group, flexible dive sites and best of all, you could leave your gear onboard overnight. And you had control over guide, equipment, food, etc. Those days are gone. Now, you can only dive with a local operator from their island. Only 4 operators from Santa Cruz, 2 from San Cristobal (1 without a boat) and 1 from Isabela currently have permits to dive. The Park has imposed very tight regulations that have driven costs way up. As a result, Scuba Iguana is now charging $210 for a 2 tank dive and Nautidiving is charging $350 pp (without equipment) on Santa Cruz. And that's without hotel, breakfast, dinner, transportation or anything other than the diving. In short, landbased is no longer a bargain relative to liveaboards.

Additionally, some sites are now off limits to landbased operators, like Cousins. And no one from Santa Cruz or San Cristobal are allowed to dive Floreana now. It's possible that before the month is out, you can dive Floreana locally on a very small boat, but we'll see how the logistics shake out since there is no compressor or tanks on Floreana. Believe me, it's a nightmare getting tanks to Floreana. Shame, I love diving Floreana.

PS..more on original topic...I was as shocked to hear there were 8 whale shark sightings last week at Darwin and pleased to hear the water is finally warming up again. Heard lots of mantas at Cape Marshall in 100+ ft visibility! You never know and La Nina certainly did have its impact. Glad that's almost over.

 

[Manuel Sam]

Advance,

I think that if you want to dive Caribbean sites like Bonaire, Cayman Islands, Cozumel or Belize, to name a few, because you are already on this side of the world, that would be fine as a first-time experience for someone who has never dived these waters, so from that respect it would be all new to you. However, call me spoiled or whatever, but as Ronscuba might have hinted, you will find it a bit lacking in terms of variety and quantities when compared to the Red Sea and Indo-Pacific destinations.

Many of us who dove the Caribbean for a long time during our "school years" of diving and then "graduated" to the Pacific and Indo-Pacific tend to seldom look back. I would venture to say that there aren't many that would claim the reverse.

That is not to say that I absolutely won't dive the area. For example, if I only had a week or if I was limited by the amount I wanted to spend, then the Caribbean is an easy hop for me, specially when it can quickly whisk me away from the bleak winter conditions where I live.

There are also some unique dive opportunities in the area that I would recommend to someone in your situation. "Unique" in the sense that I consider them really neat in-water experiences for this area.

1. as I said in my original reply, snorkeling and freediving with the whalesharks in Isla Mujeres in Mexico - also fits the August timeframe that you are looking at.
2. Tiger Beach on liveaboard out of the West Palm Beach area in Florida to see Tiger, Lemon, Nurse, Caribbean Reef, and maybe one or two other types of sharks.
3. Bahamas or Bimini on liveaboard out of either Florida and Bimini to snorkel and freedive with Atlantic Spotted Dolphins and Bottlenose Dolphins.
4. Combine #2 or #3 with a few days of diving Blue Heron Bridge in West Palm Beach in Florida for some "Lembeh-like" diving for weird creatures.
5. St. Vincent in the Southern Caribbean, also to look for some very unique critters.

Cocos, Malpelo, and also the Pacific islands of Panama (Coiba) are also world-class liveaboard dive trips (and also at high season) to add to your Galapagos trip, and to include as part of any trip to this side of the world, but now you are talking really serious money.

The boats that sail out of Panama to do Malpelo also do Coiba. Check out the Yemaya and the Inula. There is an ongoing thread in this forum on Malpelo that you can read up on. However, I don't know if any of them do a Malpelo/Cocos combo trip. The Undersea Hunter group used to do these Cocos/Malpelo trips but they no longer do.