How Whale Shark Season Works in La Paz:
The 2026–2029 Rules

In September 2026, Mexico's environment ministry (SEMARNAT) published a new management plan for swimming with whale sharks in La Paz Bay. It covers three full seasons — 2026–27, 2027–28 and 2028–29 — and it changes how the bay is divided, how boats are counted and how close you can swim. Here is how the system works, what the sharks are doing here in the first place, and how we run our trips inside it.

Who Runs the System

Three federal bodies share the job. SEMARNAT's Wildlife Directorate writes the plan and issues each operator's permit. CONANP, Mexico's protected-areas commission, runs the day-to-day: counting sharks, setting the departure shifts and administering the refuge. PROFEPA, the environmental enforcement agency, inspects boats and permits along with the Navy and the Port Captain.

The sharks live inside the Whale Shark Refuge Area of La Paz Bay, created in 2018: 22,749 hectares of coastal water stretching from San Juan de la Costa in the north to the mouth of the Ensenada de La Paz, between the tip of El Mogote and the Malecón. Every permitted boat flies an official numbered flag, and each permit covers exactly one person or company and one boat.

Three Zones, One Place to Swim

The biggest change for 2026–2029 is a map. The refuge is now split into three zones:

• Zone I — swimming and observation. Along the northern shore of the El Mogote peninsula. This is the only place in the bay where you can swim with whale sharks.
• Zone II — conservation. No swimming or observation at all. Boats are tracked by satellite, and one detected working here can face inspection and sanctions.
• Zone III — transit only. Boats pass through to reach Zone I, at a maximum of 7 knots (12.9 km/h), and no shark activity is allowed.

How the Sharks Are Counted — and Why It Decides Everything

Nothing in this system is fixed in advance. The number of boats allowed out depends on how many sharks are actually in Zone I. At least twice a week, a monitoring boat runs Zone I out and back along the same route, with a CONANP representative on board validating the count. Operators supply the boat and crew; CONANP makes the count official. Every permit holder has to join at least one of these monitoring days each season.

The two most recent official counts are averaged and rounded up. That number sets the day's limit:

The season window runs October through April, but swimming only starts — and only continues — while there are six or more sharks. That is why opening day can move, and why the rules can pause mid-season if the sharks thin out. CONANP sets the shift times based on the latest count and on what the Port Captain allows that day. Your departure time is confirmed the afternoon before; we send it to you by WhatsApp that evening.

Getting In and Out of the Refuge

• Boarding only at authorized docks. Passengers board and land only at sites approved by the Port Captain — never from the beach — and no one may board under the influence of alcohol or other substances.
• Every entry and exit is logged. Boats register entering and leaving the refuge on a tracking platform, and their movements can be followed by satellite.
• Boat size is capped. Whale shark boats can be no longer than 11 meters (36 feet), must carry a current Maritime Safety Certificate, and can never carry more people than that certificate allows.
• Speed limits all the way through. 7 knots in transit, slowing to 3 knots (5.5 km/h) when approaching a shark.

How the Encounter Works

The approach

The captain comes in diagonally from behind the shark, running parallel to its direction of travel, at 3 knots or less and never closer than 5 meters. Approaching head-on, steering at the shark or at swimmers, or cutting across its path is prohibited. If a shark swims up to the boat, the engine stays on in neutral until it moves away.

One boat, 30 minutes

Only one boat may work with a shark or group of sharks at a time, for a maximum of 30 minutes. Every other boat stays at least 50 meters back and keeps searching for other sharks, and boats keep 50 meters between each other throughout.

The 30 minutes is per shark, not per trip. It is there so no single animal is followed for too long. When the time is up, the boat moves off and searches for the next shark. With several sharks in Zone I, there almost always is another — and another. Our departures have 2 hours in the zone, so a typical trip includes several encounters with different sharks.

Into the water: five swimmers and a guide

For the entry, the boat positions about 15 meters ahead of the shark at a 45° angle to its path, engine in neutral. Then up to five swimmers enter with a guide — quietly, with no jumping or splashing. Everyone wears a full-torso life vest or a wetsuit, plus mask, snorkel and fins. Translators and photographers registered as crew stay on board so they don't add to the limit.

In the water

• Stay at least 2 meters from the head and sides and 3 meters from the tail.
• Stay at the surface and together as a group — never dive beneath the shark or swim in front of it.
• If several sharks are feeding together, swim only on the edges so the group isn't broken up.
• No touching, riding, chasing or feeding. No flash, underwater lights, selfie sticks or underwater scooters, and no drones overhead.
• Biodegradable sunscreen only, and not much of it.

If a shark shows signs of stress — evasive swimming, a defensive tail beat, sudden changes in speed or direction, a long deep dive, or it stops feeding — the encounter ends. The boat backs away at 3 knots and only speeds up once it is 50 meters clear.

What a Guide and Captain Must Have

The guide. Federal standard NOM-171-SEMARNAT-2018 says every whale shark swim must be supervised by a specialized guide accredited under NOM-09-TUR-2002, and that one guide controls a maximum of five swimmers. That accreditation is a credential issued by Mexico's tourism ministry (SECTUR). To get it, a guide must:

• complete formal training in the specialty from a recognized institution and pass the required exams (or hold a related technical or professional degree plus at least a year assisting groups in that specialty);
• hold first aid and CPR training from a qualified institution, no more than two years old;
• present a current medical certificate of good health.

At The Hook, every guide is certified — on every tour we run, not just whale sharks.

On the boat, the guide wears visible identification and checks every swimmer's safety gear. Before every trip, the crew briefs guests on what is allowed and prohibited and on the official code of conduct, "Observo, No Toco" — "I observe, I don't touch."

The captain and boat. The boat must hold a current Maritime Safety Certificate, carry the required safety and first aid equipment and a sealed container for trash, and fly its permit flag. The captain is responsible for the approach protocol, speed limits, the 30-minute limit and the 50-meter spacing, and logs every trip: departure and return times, people aboard, sharks seen, how many people swam and any incidents. Those logs go into the operator's annual activity report to SEMARNAT. Permits are not renewed automatically: every season each operator applies again, and anyone who operated the year before must include that report. The plan also calls for crews to be trained in marine first aid and emergency procedures.

Why the Sharks Come to La Paz

The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is the largest fish in the world, reaching up to 20 meters. Despite its size it is a filter feeder that lives on zooplankton, and in La Paz Bay it gathers where tiny crustaceans called copepods (especially the genus Acartia) and arrow worms are thickest. The bay's nutrients peak from December through May, when its water column mixes, and that productivity is what brings the sharks in.

The sharks you meet here are mostly juveniles. In the Gulf of California, young sharks stay in shallow coastal water while larger adults use deeper, open-ocean areas, and researchers have proposed La Paz Bay as a secondary nursery for juveniles. Whale sharks give birth to live young, grow slowly and mature late, so a population takes a long time to recover from losses. Mexico lists the species as threatened, the IUCN lists it as endangered, and international trade in it is banned under CITES Appendix I.

Each shark has its own pattern of pale spots and stripes, as individual as a fingerprint. Our guides photograph those patterns during encounters so individual sharks can be identified over time.

How The Hook Works Inside the System

We have been running whale shark trips in La Paz Bay for six years. In that time we have had one day without a whale shark encounter, during an exceptional cold-water event. The rules have changed over those years, and this plan is the newest version. We know the zones and the shift system, and our trips are built around those rules.

• 2 hours in the zone. After each 30-minute encounter we move on to the next shark, and we almost always find another, and another.
• Small boats, rotated groups. A maximum of 10 guests on our Hook boats, so with the five-swimmer limit everyone gets real time in the water rather than waiting on a crowded deck.
• Certified, marine biologist guides in the water with you, explaining what the shark is doing and keeping the group at the right distance.
• Gear that meets the rules. Wetsuits and snorkel gear are included on every trip, and biodegradable sunscreen is sold at our office.
• Straight answers on timing. If CONANP's counts close or limit swimming on your date, we tell you as soon as we know.