Last Monday I got picked up in a van by my apartment at 6am and then spent a couple of more hours picking up 3 more groups of people and ending up on a pier near Cancan. We then spent almost 2 hours heading out to open water between the islands of Isle Mujeres and Holbox. All this to jump in the water 4 times with one other person on the boat for 5-10 minute swims.
But what swims they were! We were able to swim right next to 30 foot whale sharks as they slowly fed on the surface of the water. As an extra bonus we also saw 15 foot prehistoric looking manta rays swimming and feeding amongst the sharks. On one swim I was so focused on keeping up with the shark I was next to that I swam right into the front of one of the other boats in the group we were with. On another dive we saw 4 huge manta rays glide right past us as we finished that shark swim and then saw a fifth float by as we were getting back to our boat. The guides said having manta rays together with the sharks was rather rare. So they ended up being more interested in the rays than the sharks during our times in the water.
Whale sharks are the largest fish in the world and live to between 80 and 130 years. They slowly drift near the surface of the water and feed on plankton and small fish. They are also an endangered species, hence the short, dramatic swims. The boats from all the operators were only supposed to be in the area for an hour. Having all the swimmers around over an extended period of time can stress the sharks and the authorities want to minimize an impact we have. We were also not supposed to touch the sharks, and I found myself on one swim having to tuck in my fins and then rapidly reverse course as one shark I was next to suddenly swerved and dived right under me as it was gliding through its plankton field.
