Whale Shark

Photo: David R · CC BY-NC

Whale sharks visit the outer waters of Tortuga Negra Bay during the warm season (December to May) when phytoplankton blooms create feeding opportunities in the thermocline. Unlike the aggregations at Darwin and Wolf, these are typically solitary individuals, but the encounters are intimate and the warm clear water makes for exceptional photography. Female whale sharks, many of them visibly pregnant, are the dominant demographic here — a pattern observed across the Galapagos that suggests the archipelago serves as a critical reproductive habitat.