Do you want to swim with a 40-foot-long endangered fish that weighs 11 tons? Lots of people do, making whale shark tourism popular in places like western Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In North America, La Paz, Mexico, is the place to swim with these enormous creatures.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species lists the whale shark as “vulnerable to extinction.” Their biggest threat is human activity. While hunting is the biggest problem, conservationists are also watching the steep rise in wildlife tourism.
In February, La Paz, a city of 250,000 on the Baja Peninsula, suspended whale shark tours in the Bay of La Paz because of a sudden drop in sightings. After about six weeks — which is long in tourism time and dollars — local authorities decided tours could resume.
Outdoors Wire talked to Ximena Vega, a tourist guide at Red Travel Mexico, to find out what was going on with the suspension and how people monitor whale sharks and decide on safe levels of human interaction.
“The whale shark population in La Paz Bay is monitored mainly by the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP), but it involves environmental authorities, tourism service providers, the scientific community, and NGOs,” Vega said.
Twice a week, boats go out to established areas 700 meters from the coast and “report on the number of sharks sighted, the sighting sites, the average size of the specimens and their behavior, as well as weather conditions,” Vega said. “This pause in whale shark activities is one of the measures we take to protect the population. When five or fewer of the species are seen within a defined area, these activities are suspended.”
The Bay of La Paz is a protected area where the number of boats allowed is strictly limited. “Only one boat is allowed per whale shark, and there can be a maximum of only 14 boats per shift,” Vega said. All boats are monitored via GPS, must stay within a defined area, and comply with strict speed limits.
Whale sharks prefer warm water temperatures above 72 degrees. These filter feeders mostly swim at the ocean’s surface, which makes them vulnerable to boat strikes, fishing mishaps, plastic ingestion, and tourism. Each whale shark has a unique spot pattern akin to human fingerprints. This is super convenient for researchers tracking the endangered species.
If you decide to swim with whale sharks in La Paz or elsewhere, enter the water slowly and stay at least a meter away. Don’t touch the sharks, and — it should go without saying, but some yahoos need to be told — do not attempt to ride the shark. Show some respect for the world’s largest fish.