Q: Re Photographing Whale Sharks

[DandyDon]

It is against the Honduran approved whale shark encounter protocol to use any type of flash or strobe while photographing whale sharks in Honduran waters.

With the amount of particulate found in the “boil” or bait ball where whale sharks are most often encountered the flash is actually a distraction for quality photos. The flash causes back scatter.

The Bay Islands of Honduras whale shark encounter protocol can be viewed on the Whale Shark Oceanic Research Centers web site at: wsorc.org

Those are standard rules for this side of the world, but he's in Asia. We didn't have a boil off of Mexico, btw.

DandyDon, i also did the Holbox WS tour... although no one said we could not use flashes, we divers agreed to NOT use them. i had read that they were very shy so we all agreed. They are timid creatues and even though they seem to glide effortlessly in the water we had to really pump our legs just to keep up! They really move thru the water. We found several but most did not seem to like our company.... they let us swim in pairs and if one of the 2 in the water got somewhat in front of the WS, they would dive and leave us in the empty ocean. I can only imagine what a flash or strobe would do....

It was on the Warning sign. Remember the big sign on the boat...

 

[scuba_drum]

A sign would have been good, but there was none on the boats we were on... promise! This was a couple of years ago, maybe the signs are a newer thing.

 

[chip104]

the no flash rule is also in effect in Donsol and Sogod Bay, Philippines since flash scare and annoy the whalesharks down there.

 

[Nishan]

There may be exceptions but most whale sharks tend to be scared off easily. One even reacted when my buddy accidently got in its way at Sogod Bay. Not using a flash is just a small sacrifice on our part, and anyway you dont really need a flash in most instances. I got good pictures at Sogod Bay in natural light using a basic kit lens on a Canon D350.

 

[Xaryo]

If you take pictures of Whale shark, try to take their "fingerprints", the spot pattern behind the gills on the left side.
Then report the sighting to

Utila Whale Shark Research
or
ECOCEAN Whale Shark Photo-identification Library

 

[DandyDon]

If you take pictures of Whale shark, try to take their "fingerprints", the spot pattern behind the gills on the left side.
Then report the sighting to

Utila Whale Shark Research
or
ECOCEAN Whale Shark Photo-identification Library

They still want those? I could send screen shots from my vids which were all from left side.

Heard today on Cozumel that the herd west of Cancun is estimated at 200 this year. Nice to hear those are doing well.