Whale shark (Rhincodon typus), illustration

Protected Rhincodon typus

Whale shark in Los Cabos

The biggest fish in the ocean is a gentle filter feeder. From October to April young whale sharks gather in the Bay of La Paz, and pregnant females have been tagged right off Los Cabos.

Up to 18.8 mLargest reliably measured

50+ yearsConfirmed age

Oct – AprLa Paz season

EndangeredIUCN Red List

When to see them

Jan Feb·Mar·Apr·May·Jun·Jul·Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

●● best months · ● regular · · occasional. Based on scientific studies and local reports; it changes year to year.

Tap a month to see everything biting in Cabo that month ›

How to recognize it

Huge, with a wide flat head, a mouth at the very front of the snout, and a dark gray-blue back covered in white spots and pale stripes. The spot pattern is unique to each shark.

Biology

Whale sharks are filter feeders: they swim with the mouth open or suck in water, straining out plankton, krill, fish eggs and small fish. In the Bay of La Paz they feed on dense patches of copepods and arrow worms, mostly around El Mogote.

The sharks in the bay are mostly juveniles of 4 to 5 m, about 60% of them male, and many come back year after year. Adults live offshore, and pregnant females have been tagged at Gorda Banks, off San José del Cabo, and at Isla Espíritu Santo.

Things you probably didn't know

300 pups, one father

A female caught off Taiwan in 1995 carried about 300 embryos, proving that whale sharks give birth to live young. DNA tests later showed one male fathered all of them.

Source ↗

Aged by atomic bombs

Carbon left in the ocean by Cold War nuclear tests let scientists prove one whale shark was 50 years old, and that a new ring forms in their vertebrae every year.

Source ↗

Identified like stars

Each shark's spot pattern is unique, and researchers match photos with an algorithm originally designed to recognize star patterns.

Source ↗

20,000 km across the Pacific

A female named Anne, tagged in Panama, swam more than 20,000 km toward the Mariana Trench: the longest whale shark migration ever recorded.

Source ↗

Pregnant females off Los Cabos

Pregnant adult females have been tagged at Gorda Banks, off San José del Cabo, and at Isla Espíritu Santo.

Source ↗

Down to 1,900 m

Despite feeding at the surface, whale sharks dive to around 1,900 m, into water as cold as 4 °C.

Source ↗

Photos

Whale shark, photo 1 (Océano Pacífico) — Michael Bear · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0

Whale shark, photo 2 (Loreto, BCS) — Sue Carnahan · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0

Whale shark, photo 3 (La Paz, Baja California Sur) — Louis Imbeau · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0

Whale shark, photo 4 (Gulf of Mexico) — Trevor Harding · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0

Whale shark, photo 5 (Calle Tenochtitlán 560–584, La Paz) — Bill Levine · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0

Whale shark, photo 6 (La Paz, Baja California Sur) — Attila Oláh · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0

Seeing them from the boat

The place to swim with them is the Bay of La Paz, from October to April, with authorized operators. Off Los Cabos itself they’re only an occasional sighting, mostly between February and July.

Rules in the water: stay at least 2 m from the sides of the head and 3 m from the tail, never touch or ride them, no flash, and only biodegradable sunscreen. Boats slow to 3 knots where sharks gather and stay with each shark for no more than 30 minutes.

Rules & conservation

Mexico (NOM-059)	Threatened (A)
Capture (NOM-029)	Catching or keeping whale sharks is banned; any caught by accident must be released
Bay of La Paz	Whale shark refuge area since 2018
Swimming rules (NOM-171)	2 m from the head, 3 m from the tail, no touching
IUCN Red List	Endangered (2016)
CITES	Appendix I since 2026 (Appendix II 2003–2026)