We do not recommend this first whale shark moon season and do not take pre-bookings for this first whale shark moon season March 31 to April 12 as the successful encounter rate has historically been very low. Yesterday we got reports that the fishermen at Gladden Spit had sighted at least one whale shark so today we took some guests out for a whale shark trip. No whale sharks seen but it was a very busy dive. Lots of reef sharks, bull sharks and of course loads of snapper. Usually there are also dolphins but they were not there today (maybe had read by discouraging comments on ScubaBoard about this first whale shark moon season.
We will be doing and taking bookings for whale shark tours April 29 to May 11 (except April 29 and 30 are already fully booked), May 29 to June 10 and June 28 to July 10.
Whale shark diving is blue water diving with no visual reference – you cannot see the reef or the bottom. For that reason, we only take advanced or experienced divers (30+ dives) to dive with whale sharks. We also require all divers to have done at least one dive tour with us before we take them to dive in the whale shark zone or to the Blue Hole (check out dive). We also require that all divers who have not dived during the past year do a refresher before coming to Belize or before the whale shark moon season (we are unable to do refreshers during the April and May whale shark moon seasons as that is peak season with instructors and dive masters fully occupied with whale shark and related diving).
Our whale shark snorkel tours are described at this link:
Whale Shark Snorkel Tours | Splash Dive Center | Placencia Belize
We use two methods to look for whale sharks – looking for the snapper or looking for the birds.
1. We use fish finders to find the snapper as the whale sharks come to feed on the spawning aggregation and put the divers in the water above the snapper. The divers try to stay with but well above the snapper and try to stay in a tight group so that the bubbles are concentrated. The idea is that the whale shark will see the bubbles, think that is the spawn and come directly to the divers. As the bubbles go to surface, often the whale sharks do too, so the snorkelers get a close encounter. We have had some situations where the whale sharks came from the side rather than from the deep, so the snorkelers saw them but the divers who were looking down, did not see them. Other times, the whale sharks have come close to the divers and then gone back down without tasting the bubbles.
2. We watch for birds circling as when they flock over the sea, it is usually because they are feeding on bait fish. Whale sharks also feed on bait fish and they do that on surface. When we see the birds, we head for the spot. Usually in this situation, the divers tend to stay at snorkel depths.
