Day One Score... Crap Weather - 1, Whale Sharks - 0

July 8, 2024 - Day One

We got weathered out, sadly. Hurricane Beryl, which recently passed through the area, has taken a toll on the Yucatan. The hurricane blew through early Friday morning, causing a lot of wind damage: mostly broken branches, some roadside signs, and a few windows. But we are still dealing with the aftermath of the storm.

The ocean swells from the passing storm are making our life out on the ocean complicated. The hurricane is long gone. Texans, especially those in places like Houston, are dealing with it now.

Today I was thinking... we have been running our whale shark expedition every July for the past 20 years, and we have never had a weather day until this year. We have never had to cancel a day on this trip, which is amazing.

Someone might remind me of one, but I don’t remember any. We have had bad weather before, but we were already out there when the storm arrived to kick us around.

This is the first, and I hope it will be the last weather day we will experience. I feel bad for our guests, as they all want to be out there looking at these amazing sharks, but nope, we are stuck on land.

We are all making the most of it in our own ways. Isla truly is a paradise, and if you are going to be stuck somewhere, this gorgeous island with a perfect beach is the place to be stuck.

Thankfully, the forecast looks like this will be a one-day deal, and tomorrow it will be game on to get out there to find those sharks… And find them we will!

To read about this years trip, please visit our whale shark trip report…

Final Day and Final Thoughts!

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We ended our trip here on Isla Mujeres with a bang! We headed out in a lumpy sea. Sadly it was bumpier than I would have liked it to be. I was hoping for a calm, slow rolling sea, like our day one. But nope, we had some strong winds, which kicked things up a bit.

That is nature, and not much we can do about that. Despite the bumps, the sharks had been found pretty quickly, but unfortunately, we got there late. There were a lot of boats around them, and after a couple of jumps, we decided to get out of the area to try and find a spot with some shark action and fewer boats.

It didn’t take long. We found an area with not as many sharks but much less boat traffic, so we decided to try our luck with the sharks here. It was a win… we had a lot of good encounters, and it was a lot of fun.

One by one, the tourist boats left until it was just our two boats and a bunch of whale sharks. It was a magical way to end the trip. We spent our remaining time left with one shark. The shark was super relaxed, it would coke bottle on the surface, then swim down deep for a minute or two, then it would return to the surface and begin coke bottle feeding again. Coke bottling is what we call it when the shark stops swimming and stays in one spot, to suck feed.

It is the best interactions when they do that.

So our two boats took turns swimming with this shark for over an hour. It was absolute MAGIC! Finally, the shark stopped feeding, swam down, and disappeared. The few of us in the water swam back to the boat, all of us on cloud nine. Just on fire!

I was about to climb up on our boat when I turned around and see… the shark had resurfaced. It followed us to the boat as if she was saying, “Hey, where did you all go?”

Damn, if I do not get emotional when things like that happen to me, to us.

It is sometimes truly overwhelming, we still have so much to learn about these animals.

We finished the day with a fun snorkel on a reef near Contoy island. That is always a great way to say goodbye to this very special place.

Thank you guys for reading, and to my friends who joined us out there, thank you so much for making this trip and this week so flipping amazing… a big hug and safe journeys home.

Hope to see you all again and soon.

Yesterday was All about Manta Rays... Today was all about the SHARKS!

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We had an amazing day with the whale sharks today. There was a lot of sharks, all ram feeding on the billions of fish eggs floating on the surface. The action was so damn good. I am over the moon with how much fun we all had today.

We did have some major cloud coverage though and the water was a bit dark, and with all the fish eggs murking everything up, it made photography a bit challenging. So I decided to shoot video instead of stills. I did snap a few stills, but not as many as I usually shoot on a day like this. Video in these conditions is a lot more forgiving.

We all had a blast swimming with the sharks today, and everyone had a chance to capture something fun. I know I did.

I did not post a blog yesterday because the signal at our hotel was pretty glitchy. Every time I tried to log on, I got kicked out. But it gave me a chance to catch up on some much needed sleep.

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A quick update for you; Rooster showed up! I have seen this shark every summer for the past 15-ish years. I was super happy to see her. I finally got an ok photo of her dorsal fin. I would love to get a better shot of her fin above the water surface, so you can see why we dubbed her Rooster. And I know Rooster is a boy name, but it’s all about equality right now, so it’s fitting. LOL

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DAY TWO

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Yesterday was day two of our expedition and it was all about the mantas. There was so many manta rays swimming around, it was pure magic. Today we hardly saw any mantas, which I find interesting. Where did they all go?

In the area we were hanging out at yesterday, there wasn’t very many sharks, which was surprising. But that was fine with me, variety is great on big animal dives, and manta rays are really exciting animals to swim with.

The few sharks that were there, were all coke bottle feeding, and that made for EPIC photo opportunities.

The day was just great, we had clear skies and blue water, and the action was top notch, the kind of stuff that dreams are made of. It was a hell of a day at sea.

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Ok, its 11:30PM and tomorrow is our final of the day of the trip, so I is going to bed. Super tired today, but wanted to get a quick blog up. Until tomorrow… FYI; gonna try going live on FB again. I went live this morning, but FB kicked me out pretty quick.

Day One Was Fun... Love Dem Sharks!

Canon 5D M4, with an 8-15MM fisheye, in an Aquatica housing - my settings were 1/400, f9, ISO 800

Day one off Isla Mujeres for whale sharks is in the books.

It was a really good day, and the conditions were amazing. Thankfully there was quite a few sharks out here, maybe around fifty whale sharks. It was not the hundreds that we normally see out during this time of year. But it is early in the week, and I am predicting that the number of sharks will keep increasing over the next few days.

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We have had the same captains for our trips for the past 12 years. Captain Gabby and Rami greeted us at the pier this morning and asked Mari where Sophia was, she pointed her out, they did not recognize the young lady before them. She started coming out with us on our whale shark trips when she was 5 years old, she is now 16 years old. Because of covid, it has been two years since they have seen her. They were blown away. Captain Gabby got a bit teary eyed. It was so sweet.

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Heading out this morning.

Super happy with the day we had today, our captain told us that the shark action the previous weeks had been super slow. But that is nature, you never know what she is going to gift you with. Thankfully we arrived at the right time… and if this week goes the way I think it will, it should be a good week.

Today, it is official…when I jumped in the water with the sharks this morning, that made 18 years of swimming with the whales sharks in Mexico.

18 years!!!

We started running these trips back in 2005, and here we are all these years later, still out here, and still enjoying the hell out of it. I really love being in the water with these animals, it is still a lot of fun to me. That has not changed, and I don’t think it ever will.

Canon 5D M4, with an 8-15MM fisheye, in an Aquatica housing - my settings were 1/400, f9, ISO 800

Ok, headed to bed, just thought I’d share a little bit of our day’s adventure, and a couple shots I captured. There is a lot of food in the water so the vis and the images are a bit dirty, but that is why the sharks aggregate together in these kind of numbers. Lots of munchies and crunchies to eat.

Day two tomorrow.

Until then… good night my friends.

Arrival Day... Whale Sharks off Isla Mujeres Begins!

Today is arrival day… a new adventure begins. We are on Isla Mujeres Mexico to swim with whale sharks and if we are lucky manta rays. I am looking forward to this week and the magic we will all hopefully experience.

Last nights sunset. Isla Mujeres does not disappoint.

We have been running this trip every summer since 2005. So when we hit the water tomorrow morning it will officially be 18 seasons that we have been running this experience. 18 years of whales sharks, is pretty cool. It is often the same sharks that return to this spot year after year, so I am hoping to see if I can recognize any of the individuals that come here. It is really difficult because they all look the same. One whale shark I can easily recognize is one we have dubbed Rooster, he has a shredded dorsal fin, that looks like a roosters comb.

WOW, 18 years. So much has changed since we first started offering this trip. It was really raw and wild back then. We first ran these trips out of Holbox, Mexico. Back then there was only three or four hotels on the island. Now, there are at least 30 to 40. So much has changed. I remember, trash was a problem on the island back then, I wonder what they do now?

We changed island locations about 12 years ago when the whale sharks started spending more of their time in the Caribbean sea vs the Gulf of Mexico. Which was fine by me, I prefer the sharks in blue water vs. the green water, plus the blue water is warmer than the Gulf. It can be a bit chilly.

Anyway back to today…

I picked up our friends this morning from the Cancun airport and brought them to the island. Arrival day is always a bit hectic, but thankfully it ran really smoothly - No ones flights were delayed, and everyone’s bags showed up when they got off the plane. When I arrived at the airport, everyone was already through customs and waiting outside, made for a fast pickup and smooth transfer to the island.

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Van ride to the ferry.

We drove to the ferry terminal, chatting it up, and getting to know each other a little better.

We have some returning friends on the trip and a few new faces. It is always fun meeting new people and seeing old friends when they show up on our trips, it often feels more like family reunions rather than wildlife trips sometimes. Today was one of those days.

Anyway, its late… I am going to keep this short as it is 11:50 at night and we have to wake up at 6:40am for a quick breakfast at 7 and then out on the boat at 8. I am hoping for a great day with the sharks.

Day One begins!

More tomorrow… thanks for reading.

Day One... Whale Shark Adventure Has Begun!

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July 14, 2021 - Shit wifi has not allowed me to share as much as I had hoped, and I also have not had much to share. Holbox was a bust for wildlife. I managed to snap a few songbirds and a flying nightjar, but it was crap for flamingos. They were not there yet; only a few were around, not enough for a real shot at photographing them. I saw them, and I got a few photos of them flying by and some proof of life images of them, but that is it. I was disappointed; the spot was nothing like we experienced three years ago. There were so many around, and they were close. But that just means I need to go back and try again.

My perfectly imperfect crew. Love these guys.

Holbox was nice, though, hanging out with some of my best friends, catching up on old times. Sadly I was not 100%, I recently got my vaccination for covid, and I developed a sore throat the following days after and lost my voice. So for two days, I was not able to talk, which was frustrating. Then I got Montezuma's from eating something bad or the water, and I was out for the count for a night. But thankfully, it is all done, and I am rocking now.

I am sure that is more info than you guys wanted, but that is part of the travel life, and sharing is caring. lol

On the 13th, we left Holbox and traveled to Isla Mujeres. We picked up the guests who will join us for the trip, along with a big circus of friendly faces. More friends and family are coming to hang out with us on Isla. Right now, it is around 20 friends and family members that came to Isla to hang out with us that have nothing to do with our whale shark trip. They just wanted to get out of Texas and California and get away - so they are all here, hanging out while we work. I love these crazy peeps.

So back to the whale sharks. Today was day one of four days of our whale sharks and manta rays diving trip. THE conditions were tough! We had rough seas, and the ride was extremely wet. A few of our guests ended up getting sick, sadly, but that happens.

On top of that, we only had one whale shark, which is extremely rare; usually, we see more than 100 plus sharks on our first day. But ok, I am not spoiled, at least the sharks are here. One of the things that didn’t help - last night we had a big storm move through, and the rain pushed a lot of the food down, so the sharks were down low and hard to find.

It was fun though, we made the most of it and spent as much time as possible with one amazingly tolerant shark. We really are just spoiled; after 16 years of running this trip here, seeing only one shark does not happen. We are used to seeing hundreds of sharks every day. But it was a great reminder to me to appreciate what nature offers you… which means, if you see one shark, you have had a great day.

It felt so damn good to be back in the water with them again. After 16 years of running this trip, I still love it. And reports are that the weather is getting better, and the water is supposed to be calming down, so hopefully, we will have more sharks show up for us. After a day like today, it gets me fired up to see what surprises nature has in store for us, because every day is different.

The adventure has begun!

Thank you for reading.

Where do I Begin???

Ok, so I have been going through old hard drives trying to figure out what to post, and damn, it is HARD trying to figure out where to start. So many stories to choose from, I feel blessed to have spent that last 17 years working with wildlife. It has been so great revisiting these moments in time - so many great memories. Looking at my early trips, I realized, I didn’t take many still images. I spent the whole time recording videos, and there was no iphone back then. So that is one of the issues I am faced with when looking at the oldest of my trips. It was also pre- gopro, so much of the video that I recorded, is just underwater footage.

Image by my bro Victor Holmes

So I decided to begin with a throwback to where it all began for me, which was July 2011, on our whale shark expedition. That trip was one of the very first ones, where I took a gopro with me and just started documenting everything. I wish I continued to do that on every single trip, because those trips are so well documented with video clips, both topside and underwater. So great for story telling purposes. So for today I reposted on our Youtube channel, the first video vlog I recorded from that trip…

As I move forward with these stories and videos from the archives, I will share more details about the experiences. I do remember when I first started, being nervous talking to the camera, but I was also very excited… because a new chapter of story telling had begun.

When I started Shark Diver magazine back in 2003, I knew I wanted to incorporate video into what we did. I felt that we could tell better stories with video, then just with written words. In fact I hired a videographer for our very first expedition (sandtiger sharks, Morehead City, NC). He edited the video and sent me the final product, but it was not what I envisioned and so we scraped the idea. He made a video that you sell to tourists. I wasn’t looking for that. I was looking for a video that shared and showed this crazy life and journey we had just begun.

I attempted to do it again in 2006, and the end product of that, was a documentary I produced, called Summer of the Sharks. Which was a lot of fun. It was a buddy shark diving road trip movie and I loved making it. Again, the film itself was edited and directed by someone else, so it was not entirely what I wanted, but it was damn close.

So finally in 2011, I started learning how to edit my own stuff to try and create moments and memories that were in my mind’s eye.

These early videos are not perfect, and I wish I could go back and correct them, but they are perfect in their in-perfections. This journey and phase of my life was a lot of fun and I was super pumped up about it, because I knew this was going to open up a whole new world for me and the stories I was able to tell. The gopro was going to give me freedom that no other camera had in the past.

So, here we go, the journey continues…