OP
nippurmagnum
Contributor
How was your trip? Did your moon theories pan out?OK tell me more about your moon theories
I'm going on the Aggressor III Aug 29 - Sept 5 and have been obsessing a bit/trying to determine likelihood of not seeing a whale shark, though I'm trying to remind myself it will be amazing even if I don't see one. It's usually prime time, but with La Nina coming in, I haven't been able to find anything definitive about the impacts on whale shark sitings, even though it is good for wildlife sitings overall. I read on a Maldives thread that siting there can correlate with the phase of the moon, but they're feeding there, where I understand scientists don't think they are feeding in the Galapagos. The Aggressor posts captain's logs most weeks. So yes, I've started plotting it out (I love this stuff).
Since 2021, there seems to consistently be 3 weeks spread over during July - September (given my dates, that's my focus time, but I also looked at October) that the Aggressor divers don't see whale sharks. Quite a few of those times, there's a full moon while the boat is in the north, but sometimes it's during a new moon and sometimes when it's a third quarter (never first quarter). Sometimes the moon is in one of those phases but a few days before or after the boat is north. But then, twice (in Sept. 2022 and Sept. 2023) there has been a full moon when the boat is north and they still see whale sharks. If the logs temps can be relied upon, they don't seem to play into the missed weeks of sitings. Unfortunately the logs don't go back to the last strong La Nina, but there was a moderate one in 2021-22 and the sitings are consistent with other years.
Schooling hammerheads and whale sharks are my bucket list species (hence the current obsession with whale shark probabilities), but I'm looking forward to all the other species, too. I usually dive on the east coast of Canada, and am easily excited by all the underwater friends, so interested to know the impact the moon phase may have on other species. It will be full on our last day north (when we're at Wolf).
BTW I also enjoyed your trip report but am getting a "404" error on your video link.
not sure about the moon influence! the dive guide said that sometimes they don't see them during the peak season because orcas are around hunting. though we didn't see any orcas either... it was still a great time though, of course. lots of mola molas.. one of my fave parts was actually spending a few days on Floreana before the liveaboard. super chill and disconnected, and really good snorkelling right off the beach. the surgeon fish there were the size of dinner plates, so many turtles, playful sea lions, christmas marine iguanas and even saw some flamingoes. there were bullhead shark researchers staying next to me so I got to see them working - pretty cool. l already want to go back, of course!
