Whale sharks (south) or Belize atolls (north)
- Thread starter HumbertoCol
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HumbertoCol
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According to Splash you can. But apparently this year there hasn't been any whale sharks spotted
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there's no guarantees you will see one. My friends were there later in June IIRC
Kharon
Contributor
Save your money and frustration. I had long email exchanges with Splash. I was promised that their boats - well here's Ralph's exact words -
“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..”
Lies. I expressed multiple times that this was a top of the bucket list trip for me - why did you lie to me Ralph? The boat has a 1.5 hour window in the "whale shark zone". Splash drops you into the open ocean and the DM (who was every bit as pi$$ed as me re the situation) swims randomly trying to find a school of fish, that might be spawning, that might attract a whale shark. Yeah right! No sonar (confirmed by both the DM & ship captin), no GPS, no looking for birds. No communication with other boats.
Ukrainien proverb - (cleaned up a bit) Pee in one hand and wish into the other - see which fills first. The DM confided that the Belize goverment is trying to close the "whale shark zone" for 2-3 years in the hope that they can lure them back.
I was told by other divers that Ambergris Cay was a lot better. Given the marine life after an hours pounding boat ride I'm not sure that is much of a recomendation.
“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..”
Lies. I expressed multiple times that this was a top of the bucket list trip for me - why did you lie to me Ralph? The boat has a 1.5 hour window in the "whale shark zone". Splash drops you into the open ocean and the DM (who was every bit as pi$$ed as me re the situation) swims randomly trying to find a school of fish, that might be spawning, that might attract a whale shark. Yeah right! No sonar (confirmed by both the DM & ship captin), no GPS, no looking for birds. No communication with other boats.
Ukrainien proverb - (cleaned up a bit) Pee in one hand and wish into the other - see which fills first. The DM confided that the Belize goverment is trying to close the "whale shark zone" for 2-3 years in the hope that they can lure them back.
I was told by other divers that Ambergris Cay was a lot better. Given the marine life after an hours pounding boat ride I'm not sure that is much of a recomendation.
Ayisha
Contributor
Our local dive shop, Aquasub, is still running these preview trips. We were trying to book this trip for several years, but the resort wasn't ready. We finally gave up and booked our own thing, and then the resort was finally almost ready. Sir Hakimi is an exacting man (and scuba diver). They are about a 10 minute boat ride from the Elbow at Turneffe. They seem to have some repeat clients already. Norbert posts about some great sightings and dives.
I've been diving at the Elbow by Turneffe in 2006 and loved it. I didn't think much of the rest of Turneffe then or especially now. We loved Glover's atoll last month for the critters and colouful coral, and Lighthouse was pretty good. We stayed in Belize longer than our liveaboard to venture off more.
This is the Aquasub website with Belize Dive Haven packages: Welcome
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