Any tips for how to eat vegan on Isla Holbox or a night in Cancun?

Thanks, Linda. I think you have to question all wildlife tours because it’s really so difficult to tell exactly what the tour will be like or whether it really is sustainable. I wouldn’t say that the company I went with was on the ball from a sustainable standpoint at all (really the opposite). However, I do think that Mexico have put into place a good number of regulations and have a reasonable amount of control over the situation and tours. Of course, happening across whale sharks in the wild while diving would always be the dream!

Hi Wendy,

Glad to hear that you had a positive experience swimming with whale sharks in the Philippines. It’s really great to hear that you didn’t experience any baiting during your trip and that you had a thorough briefing. I think it would’ve been really beneficial to have had a proper briefing in Mexico before we got in the water. We were told about keeping our distance and not touching the whale sharks but the distance was quite hard to judge in the water. Fortunately I didn’t see anyone trying to touch a whale shark though.

Hopefully people will become more aware of the regulations in place and read/research before they take a trip. I also hope that tour operators will begin to see that there is a demand for responsible whale shark tourism.

We were actually given a pretty thorough briefing and were told to stay a certain distance away from them, but that didn’t seem to be enforced in practice once we got into the water. Thank you for highlighting the importance of disturbing the whale sharks as little as possible.