Whale shark

IMPORTANT DISAMBIGUATION. Whale sharks are widely advertised alongside Raja Ampat but they are not in Raja Ampat. The aggregation is in Cenderawasih Bay, roughly a three-day passage east, where the animals gather around fishing platforms (bagans) and are hand-fed by fishermen. Encoded 'absent' for Raja Ampat itself, and flagged as provisioned rather than natural. If whale sharks are the reason for the trip, you are booking the wrong itinerary.

The 'limited' case this field exists for. Nothing closes, but from roughly May to September the southern monsoon brings strong winds, high waves and visibility down to 10-15m, and a substantial share of the liveaboard fleet suspends Raja Ampat itineraries or repositions elsewhere in Indonesia. July and August are the worst of it. Resorts stay open and sheltered sites stay diveable, so you can still go, at lower prices, with fewer options and a real chance of blown-out days.

Recorded in the park but not predictable on a given trip. Encoded as unreliable in all months rather than assigned a season no source supports.

The hardest access window in this dataset. Roughly mid-March to mid-June only, which is why March and June read 'limited' rather than 'open'. Outside it the northeast monsoon (Nov-Mar) and southwest monsoon (Jul-Oct) make the crossing to an exposed mid-sea atoll unsafe. Nothing about the reef changes; you simply cannot get there. Boats sell out 9-12 months ahead as a direct result.

Sources contradict each other on the window: Nov-Dec, Apr-May, or both. CONANP does not list whale shark among the park's representative species at all, which is itself a signal. Encoded as the conservative union of all claimed windows. Do not book around this. See OQ-05.

RESOLVED BY TIER 1. CONANP, the Mexican protected-areas authority, states the tourist diving season as November to June, 07:00-18:00, with a park fee of $3,760 MXN per person per day. That corrects the commercial sources, which variously gave Nov-May and Nov-Jun/Jul. Encoded Nov-Jun open, Jul-Oct closed. The closure is operational and regulatory, not biological: mantas, silvertips and dolphins are resident through it.

Occasional in winter months. The reliable Gulf of California whale shark product is in La Paz bay, and it is a snorkel activity.

Year-round diving with no closure. The constraint is permit capacity: roughly two dive groups per site per day, with El Vencedor allocated by weekly lottery. Both sources agree Aug-Dec gives the warmest water (27-30C) and best visibility (24-27m); ZuBlu's Feb-Jun bull shark window sits in the coldest, murkiest part of the year, which is part of why the contradiction matters. Book 3-6 months ahead for peak season.

Reported alongside the rainy-season hammerhead peak. Occasional rather than expected.

Liveaboards run year-round; there is no closed season. The seasonal split is a quality trade rather than an access one: Jun-Oct rainy season gives the best hammerhead schooling and the worst visibility (9-20m), Dec-May dry season gives up to 30m visibility and less consistent schooling.

Jun-Sep per Galapagos Conservation Trust, Jul-Oct per liveaboard sources; encoded as the union with Jul-Oct as peak. Almost exclusively at Darwin. Mature pregnant females, unlike every other known aggregation.

Open year-round with no closure; the split is a quality trade, not an access one. Cool season (Jun-Nov) means whale sharks, big-animal density, cold water and rough seas. Warm season (Dec-May) means calmer water, better visibility, more hammerhead schooling and more comfortable diving. Liveaboard permits are capped, so availability rather than weather is the practical constraint.

Arrives around mid-November into the shallow bay. Aggregations here are juveniles feeding at the surface. Snorkel only in practice, see trip_formats.

Diving runs year-round, but Los Islotes, the single biggest draw, is closed 1 June to 31 August for sea lion breeding. That is a hard site closure inside an otherwise open destination, which is why Jun-Aug reads 'limited' rather than 'open' or 'closed'. Hurricane season overlaps the same window.

Resident, near-daily sightings all year, with larger congregations Dec-Mar during the northeast monsoon. The animals shift west Dec-Apr and east May-Nov with the monsoon, so the productive stretch of reef moves rather than emptying. Unusually for a whale shark site, these are not provisioned.

Open year-round. Jun-Sep is the southwest monsoon with more rain, wind and reduced visibility, and the western sites blow out, so those read 'limited'. The whale sharks are there regardless; the diving around them is just less pleasant.

At Hanifaru during the aggregation. Note the contrast with South Ari Atoll, where whale sharks are resident year-round and divable on scuba.

The atoll is open and divable all year, but Hanifaru Bay itself is a seasonal southwest-monsoon phenomenon running roughly May to December. Outside that window the resorts and dive sites operate normally and the bay is simply empty, so Jan-Apr reads 'limited' rather than 'closed': you can go, you will dive, you will not see the thing Baa Atoll is famous for.

Tours run March to end of June from Coral Bay and to August from Exmouth, with sightings sometimes continuing into October and, in recent years, early November. Peak May-June. Unbaited: the animals come for the post-spawn plankton bloom, not for anything the operators put in the water. Most operators offer a free return if no shark is found.

Diving and snorkelling continue year-round, but the whale shark tour fleet only operates March to June or August depending on the base, and the humpback swims July to October. Nov-Feb is the Australian summer wet and cyclone season on this coast with the megafauna gone, so those months read 'limited': the reef is still there, the industry is largely not.