Whale shark watching - Isla Holbox

We decided in 2007 that we should change our 'routine' of going to Asia each year, and 'try' another continent. To be very blunt, on of the main reasons of going to Asia was financial: Asia is cheap for westeners...
We simply coudn't affort South America at the time.. or Australia.. And since we live in Europe that wasn't our first choice either. After some deliberating we chose to go to Mexico.

Watching pelicans over dinner

Of course when you go to Mexico, there's plenty to see. One of the things that caught our attention in our travel guide was the possibility to watch whale sharks... woah! That sounds pretty amazing, right?

Now... the place to to this was a tiny island off the coast of Yucatan penisula called Isla Holbox.  Motorised vehicles are not allowed on the island, and the main source of income is tourists, who visit to go on whale shark watching tours. So that's where we went!
 

Isla Holbox, with a storm hoovering over it

We booked a tour, and early morning we left the island. Of course, since the whale sharks can be anywhere... we wondered how our guides would find them?

The islanders work together tracking the whale sharks. Fast boats leave the island at the break of dawn and spread out over the gulf of Mexico to scout the waters. An hour or so later the tourist boats leave the island and head in the most likely direction. As soon as the scouts spot one or more whale sharks they radio the tourist boats where to go to.

Feeding whale shark

Now... even though it's name sounds quite dangerous,  whale sharks feed mainly on plankton. But they are BIG! The biggest fish that swim this earth to be exact.... 
(Official reports say up to 13 m long, though locals say they grow even longer.)
So.. at our first enounter we were amazed by it's size, and then our guide told us this was 'just a baby'  at 8 meters length. Okay.

Look at the size of it! (Only mouth and dorsal fin are visible)

A few minutes later we found a grown specimen and we were alowed to go into the water. 
We were happily surprised at how well the rules were abided: Only 2 people were allowed in the water at the same time and even though there were 2 boats near this shark, the captains coordinated this quite well. Before you went in you were very strictly instructed not to touch the shark.

It was a truely amazing experience. The shark lookled like it was barely moving, but swam so fast! It was hard to keep up for it for more than a minute (and we are pretty agile swimmers)
The way it fed, the size of its open mouth...  Even though I know it eats just plankton, I could easily fit in that mouth! And since a lot of water goes through it, there is an actual currunt pulling you towards it.

So you may wonder... why only crappy phots of this amazing animal?
Well.... if a have to make a choice I choose actually experiencing over documenting. As was the case here. So a made a few photos, but most of it is only a memory.  I can only say: I you ever have the opportunity, make some of your own memories!

A pod of pelicans near the island