★★ Wildlife
Swimming with Whale Sharks
Worth a detour
Watching a whale from a boat rail is one thing. Slipping over the side and finding yourself eye to eye with it is something else entirely. These four encounters share one rare trait. You get in the water with the animal, and none of them requires scuba certification, just a mask and fins. They run from gentle to staggering, so here are four places to do it, saving the most jaw dropping for last.
Crystal River, Florida
About ninety minutes north of Tampa, the spring fed waters of Kings Bay hold at seventy two degrees all winter. When the Gulf turns cold, hundreds of manatees pile into Three Sisters Springs to doze in the clear water, and snorkelers float quietly among them as the thousand pound animals surface to breathe. December through February is the peak. The honest caveat is that the biggest gatherings depend on real cold snaps. A warm winter scatters the manatees back into the Gulf. What you get in return is the gentlest possible introduction to sharing water with a giant, in water so clear every whisker shows.
Hanifaru Bay, Maldives
A short hop from Malé, Hanifaru Bay stages the largest reef manta feeding aggregation known on Earth. Each summer the southwest monsoon drives plankton into the shallow bay, and mantas pour in by the dozen, spiraling upward in feeding chains called cyclones just beneath snorkelers. August through October is the heart of it. This is a marine reserve, so it is snorkel only, no diving, no touching, which keeps the encounter calm on both sides. The trade off for traveling this far is scale. Nowhere else puts this many mantas this close to the surface.
Isla Mujeres, Mexico
A short boat ride from Cancun, Isla Mujeres hosts the richest whale shark gathering on the planet each summer. Snorkelers slip into blue water beside spotted giants the length of a bus, feeding with mouths agape at the surface. July and August are the peak weeks. The rules are strict, no touching and limited swimmers per shark, which is exactly why the sharks stay relaxed enough to swim beside. It is the easiest of the four to reach and the largest animal of the four to meet, a combination that is hard to beat.
Dominica
Off the west coast of Dominica, some two hundred sperm whales live year round in deep water close to shore. On regulated small group swims, snorkelers slip into startlingly blue water as the great whales hang motionless below, their slow clicks carrying through the water. The calmest seas run November through March. This is open ocean and the animal is the largest toothed predator on Earth, so it asks the most of you. A tail fluke rising before a deep dive is the farewell image, and there is nothing else quite like it.
Would you want to experience any of these someday?
