Whale shark dive

[Thatch Caye Belize]

Thatch Caye leaves to do the whale shark dives at noon. They do two afternoon dives and the best chances of seeing the whale sharks are on the second, later dive. The closer to the five o clock park closing time, the better, since whale sharks seem to get more active in the late afternoon and evening. That is not to say that you will never see them in the morning or at mid day, but you are more likely to see them in the latter part of the afternoon.

To get to Thatch, hop a plane to BelizeCity from San Pedro and then get a connecting flight to Dangriga. Thatch will pick you up anytime before about 11 am to get out to the caye and give you an orientation before going down to the whale shark spot. If you come earlier, they will give you lunch before heading out. It would be recomended that you stay at Thatch for that night since the dive boat gets back right as the sun is going down and there are no flights back to San Pedro in the evening. It can easily be done that way and you would only be gone for one full day and could return to San Pedro the next morning.

The dive is on a sloping shelf and there are corals and oftentimes you will see very large turtles, thousands of huge snappers (whose spawn the whale sharks are going there to consume), and often dolphins. Sometimes if the snappers are settled into a deep area, it is possible that the dive will turn into somewhat of a blue water dive since you may not be able to see the bottom from 60 feet depth. But there is no real reason to go deeper than that since the whale sharks are commonly sighted from the surface down to 80 feet and that is also generally where the snappers are located.

The dives will commence right over the spot where the snappers are and no one will know for sure that the whale sharks are there. The current is brisk and often a dive group will travel up to a mile on a single dive, while traversing the snapper spawning area. The whale sharks will come in over and around where the snappers are and they are amazing to look at. There is, however, no guarantee that you will see the whale sharks, only the strong probability that if you are near the snappers at a time following the full moon of April, May, and June and it is the latter part of the afternoon, you are likely to see them.

 

[Ralph Capeling]

From AC, you fly to Belize City domestic airport and then catch a flight to Placencia. There are many flights each day on Tropic air and Maya Island. Splash Dive Shop does whale shark dives and does reef dives and inner caye dives and usually times the whale shark dives when there is more certainty of seeing whale sharks and sends divers to the reef or inner cayes before that time. I have seen whale sharks on 9 of 11 whale shark dives which is a good percentage.

 

[Ralph Capeling]

There are regular flights from AC to Belize City municipal airport with connections to Placencia. Flights are scheduled and there are several every day. You can go either Tropic Air or Maya Island. If you want help in booking a hotel and getting picked up at the airport, you could contract Splash Dive Shop (patricia@splashbelize.com) or phone 523 3058. Splash do reef dives until conditions are best for sighting whale sharks as the whale shark dives are blue water dives with no visual reference. This seems to work well as I have seen whale sharks on 9 of 11 whale shark dives.

 

[mbothe]

Other then the Whale shark dives is there any other decent diving out of Placencia? Does anyone have preferences for dive operators, and possible house rentals?

 

[Ralph Capeling]

There is lots of good diving out of Placencia. Laughing Bird Caye on the inner reef is a national park and world heritage site. Silk Cayes on the outer reef is a marine reserve with lots of good diving there and close by. You can also make trips from Placencia to Glover's Reef. In addition, there are a lot of inland adventures tours close in the event of bad weather (in fact if you look at a map of Belize you will see that most of the reserves and protected areas and Maya Ruins are in southern Belize and accessible from Placencia. There is plenty of accomodation in Placencia. Splash Dive Shop has partnered with a range of resort and hotels that from luxury to budget to fit almost any budget. You can check us out at SplashBelize.com

 

[Hank49]

How are the dive spots if the sharks are not showing up?

I did the whale shark dive with a friend who was leasing liveaboard catamarans to Friends of Nature about 6 years ago. For me, the dive was fantastic. We didn't see the whale sharks until we surfaced after sunset and there were six of them around the boat.
But before the dive we hook and lined a few small tuna and had a shark bite one clean in half. Jumped in and saw the huge school of snappers and stayed with them for a while. Then about 5 dolphins came cruising down the reef and swam around us for a minute. The whales sharks? yaaawwwnn. yeah, we saw em'. The whole place is alive at that time. Unreal.

 

[hpbelize]

Is it still a half day trip if you fly from Ambergris Caye to Placencia? Someone told us that we could catch a flight from AC to Placencia and then take the dive boat out to the site. is this too much to do in one day?

Hugh Parkey's Belize Dive Connection has been doing whale shark diving from Belize City/Northern Belize with overnight @ Pelican Beach Resort, Southwater Caye, since 2006. An option you might want to consider.