Whale Shark Experiences May Soon Change in Mexico for Environmental Reasons

An appeal has been made to Mexico’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to restrict the number of dives that tourists can have with whale sharks.

Authorities from the Reserva de la Biosfera del Tiburon Ballena or the Whale Shark Biosphere Reserve and Isla Bonita created a new policy plan that requires tourists to use life jackets and only have two dives per whale shark experience.

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On average, tourists enter the ocean six times to swim with whale sharks. However, this may soon come to an end by next season.

Roberto Arias, president of Isla Bonita said, “Now it will be two swims per tourist, they cannot go into sea more than twice.”

Isla Bonita and the Whale Shark Biosphere Reserve have added other elements to their plan like the requirement of propeller protectors on all whale shark service boats and reducing the number of months that whale shark operators can work with a permit to only two months, July and August.

These changes are in response to the decrease in whale shark sightings over the years, which may be caused by the stress that tourists put on whale sharks via the whale shark swimming experience.