What It Takes to Do It Right

Our reality of running whale shark tours the right way

There’s a decision that happens on every single tour — and most of our guests never see it.

It’s the moment when the captain looks out at the horizon, checks the conditions, and makes a call: do we keep going, or do we turn back? Maybe the sharks are farther out than usual. Maybe the seas are rougher than expected. Maybe it’s one of those mornings where the congregation has shifted and finding them takes patience, fuel, and faith.

For us, that decision has always had one answer. We keep going.

We’ve never turned a boat around to save on fuel. We’ve never cut a tour short because the math got uncomfortable. And we never will. That’s not a sales pitch — it’s the reason Ramón and I have been doing this together for 20 years.

But doing it the right way has a cost, and this season, we need to talk about it honestly.

The Reality Behind the Price

For the 2026 season, our group tour price has moved to $185 per person, up from $150. It wasn’t a decision we made lightly. If anything, we probably waited longer than we should have.

Here’s the truth: our clients pay in US dollars, but every single expense we have is in Mexican pesos. Fuel, captain wages, guide salaries, boat maintenance, permits, licensing, the ceviche, the fruit — all of it. Over the past few years, the exchange rate has shifted significantly, and those costs have climbed steadily while our pricing stayed the same.

Fuel, in particular, has hit hard. A single tour burns through a serious amount getting out to where the sharks feed — roughly 1.5 to 2 hours each way in open water. And on days when the sharks have moved, that number goes up. We’re not running laps around a bay. We’re heading into the open Caribbean to find animals that go where they want to go.

We could have absorbed the costs quietly. Plenty of operators do — and then they make it up by cutting corners. Shorter tours. Fewer guides. Less time searching. Turn the boat around earlier. Pack in more passengers.

That’s not who we are. It will never be who we are.

 

 

What Your Ticket Actually Pays For

When you book with us, you’re not paying for a boat ride. You’re paying for a pre-tour talk the morning of your trip — built from Ramón Guerrero Garcia’s decades of knowledge and delivered by a team he has personally trained — covering the biology, the history, the rules, and the deep respect these animals deserve. You’re paying for guides who are certified, trained, and genuinely passionate about protecting the sharks. You’re paying for a captain who will run an extra hour into open water because the sharks moved — without checking a fuel gauge first.

You’re paying for fresh ceviche made on the boat after your last swim. For snorkel gear that works. For a crew that treats every single guest like family and every single whale shark like the sacred creature it is.

And you’re paying for the tours we don’t run — the ones we cancel because shark numbers are low and adding another boat isn’t the right thing to do, even when it costs us a day’s revenue.

 

 

We Know Travel Is Expensive Right Now

We’re not unaware of what it costs to get to Isla Mujeres. Flights, hotels, meals — everything is more expensive than it was a few years ago. We feel that tension, and we respect it deeply. We never want someone to feel like we’re taking their investment for granted.

That’s exactly why we’d rather be honest about where the money goes than pretend nothing has changed. If we kept the old price, eventually something would have to give. And we refuse to let that something be the quality of your experience or the well-being of the animals.

 

This Is Still a Labor of Love

Isla Whale Sharks has never been about maximizing profit. It’s a partnership — my work on the booking and client side, and Ramón’s operation through Searious Divers on the water. That partnership has held for 20 years because we share the same belief: this was never about building a business. It was about building a sustainable future for the families of local fishermen, rooted in Ramón’s lifelong connection to these animals and the waters around Isla Mujeres. I’m here because I made eye contact with a whale shark on one of the very first trips, and something inside me changed forever.

Twenty years later, that feeling hasn’t faded. Not once.

So yes, $185 is more than $150. But what it buys hasn’t changed — and it never will. An experience rooted in education, respect, and a genuine love for the world’s largest fish.

If that’s what matters to you, we’d love to have you on the boat this season.

Book your 2026 tour: www.islawhalesharks.com

— Chris Lane, Isla Whale Sharks