Whale Shark Season at Gladden Spit, Belize: Tour Limits, Rules, Fees and the 2027 Full Moons
Verified on 14 November 2026 on the Belize Fisheries Department’s page for Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve and its regulations page, the reserve’s regulations as the Attorney General’s Ministry publishes them, and the US Naval Observatory’s 2027 moon-phase data.
No month range called a whale shark season appears on the Fisheries Department’s reserve page or in the parts of the reserve’s regulations we read. The dated rule is a tour limit in the Gladden Spit spawning area: “six (6) dive and snorkel tours will be limited to two hours from March 1 to July 31 of any year inclusive” (regulation 7(3)(g) of the Fisheries (Gladden Spit & Silk Cayes Marine Reserve) Regulations). The Fisheries Department says Gladden Spit supports more than 30 species of fish, “each congregating in the thousands at full moon”, and that this “attracts one of the largest predictable whale shark congregations in Belize”.
The US Naval Observatory gives these full moons inside the 1 March to 31 July window in 2027, in Universal Time:
| Full moon | Time (Universal Time) |
|---|---|
| 22 March | 10:44 |
| 20 April | 22:27 |
| 20 May | 10:59 |
| 19 June | 00:44 |
| 18 July | 15:45 |
The regulation dates the tour limit and the department links the fish gatherings to the full moon; neither source says which of these full moons draws the most whale sharks.
Regulation 7(3): the spawning-area rules
The regulations were made in June 2003 and are printed in the Revised Edition 2020 of the Fisheries Resources Act’s subsidiary laws. Regulation 7(3) covers the spawning area:
| Item | Rule (regulation 7(3), condensed) |
|---|---|
| (a) | no touching, chasing or molesting of whale sharks will be permitted |
| (b) | divers and snorkelers should remain at least 15 feet away in any direction from any whale shark |
| (c) | maximum depth for divers of any certification is 80 feet, to avoid disturbing fish aggregations |
| (d) | boats shall remain at least 50 feet away from any whale shark |
| (e) | dive and snorkel boats should keep at least 200 feet away from each other |
| (f) | all divers and snorkelers should be out of the water by 5:30pm |
| (g) | six (6) dive and snorkel tours limited to two hours, March 1 to July 31 |
| (h) | a maximum of two boats per day per tour operator |
| (i) | a maximum of 12 visitors per boat at any one time |
| (j) | no vessel larger than 48 feet within the area |
| (k) | the Fisheries Department may close the spawning area for inclement weather or “for any other reason it deems necessary” |
Regulation 8 adds that divers register with the Reserve Manager before entering the Conservation Zones, that only certified scuba divers or divers in training with a recognised instructor may use scuba, that dive boats fly the divers down flag when they have divers in the water, and that tours are capped at eight divers per licensed dive master and eight snorkelers per licensed tour guide. Regulation 20 opens the Reserve Office daily from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Nationally, the Fisheries Department’s regulations page lists the whale shark as protected: “No person shall take or kill any of the shark species Rhincodon typus commonly known as whale sharks”.
Regulation 21: the fees as printed
Regulation 21(1) sets fees “For all water recreational activities, excluding sports and recreational fishing”. It prints a dollar sign and names no currency, so the amounts are given exactly as printed, without conversion.
| Regulation | Who and where | Fee as printed |
|---|---|---|
| 21(1)(a) | Swimmers/Snorkelers, General Use Area | $10.00 per person per day |
| 21(1)(b) | Scuba, General Use Area | $30.00 per person per week |
| 21(1)(c) | Scuba, Spawning Area | $100.00 per person |
| 21(1)(d) | Snorkel, Spawning Area | $50.00 per person |
| 21(1)(e) | Belizeans, Spawning Area | $15.00 per person |
Regulation 21(2) then reads: “No fees shall be payable by Belizeans and foreign children below twelve years of age.” Read beside 21(1)(e), which charges Belizeans $15.00 in the spawning area, the two provisions do not agree on their face; we print both and do not resolve them. These are the fees in the regulations made in 2003 as consolidated in the Revised Edition 2020; the Fisheries Department says the Southern Environmental Association handles “patrols and fee collections”.
Who manages the reserve
According to the Fisheries Department, the reserve was first established in May 2000 after lobbying by Friends of Nature, a community-based organisation, and designated a Marine Reserve in 2003, mainly to protect the Gladden Spit spawning aggregation site, the congregating whale sharks and the tourism value of the Silk Cayes. The first co-management agreement was signed in 2001; Friends of Nature is now the Southern Environmental Association (SEA), which is responsible for day-to-day management. The department cites Heyman et al. 2002 for Gladden Spit being “the highest priority spawning aggregation site in Belize”, and says the whale shark congregation is “an important tourism resource for Placencia and other coastal communities of Belize”; the village is covered on Placencia. The page lists +501-523-3377 for the reserve’s management team. Regulation 19 applies the general Fisheries Regulations inside the reserve, including the lobster closed season.
What the regulations and the department do not say
- A whale shark season. No month range for whale sharks appears on the department’s reserve page or in the parts of regulations 1, 2, 7, 8 and 19 to 22 that we read; the 1 March to 31 July dates belong to the tour-length rule.
- Which six tours regulation 7(3)(g) means. The rule says six (6) dive and snorkel tours and does not say how they are chosen.
- The currency of the regulation 21 fees.
- Sighting counts or odds, for any month or moon, on the department’s page.
- Local times for the moon. The US Naval Observatory gives Universal Time and points readers to its time-zone pages to convert; we have not converted.
How we researched this
On 14 November 2026 we read the Fisheries Department’s Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes page and its regulations page; downloaded the Fisheries Resources Act subsidiary-law volume (Revised Edition 2020) from the Attorney General’s Ministry and extracted the reserve’s regulations from it; and read the US Naval Observatory’s 2027 moon-phase table and its data service, keeping the full moons from March to July. No fee was converted and no moon time was shifted to Belize time.
Sources
- Belize Fisheries Department: Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve (read 14 November 2026): the May 2000 and 2003 dates, the 2001 co-management agreement, SEA’s role and fee collection, the more than 30 species at full moon, the whale shark congregation, Placencia, the contact number
- Attorney General’s Ministry: Fisheries (Gladden Spit & Silk Cayes Marine Reserve) Regulations, in the Fisheries Resources Act subsidiary laws, Revised Edition 2020 (read 14 November 2026): regulations 7(3), 8, 19, 20 and 21, made in June 2003
- Belize Fisheries Department: Regulations (read 14 November 2026): whale sharks protected
- US Naval Observatory: Dates of Primary Phases of the Moon, 2027 table (read 14 November 2026): the 2027 full-moon dates and times in Universal Time
- US Naval Observatory: Phases of the Moon, 2027 (data service) (read 14 November 2026): the same full-moon dates and times
- US Naval Observatory: Dates of Primary Phases of the Moon (read 14 November 2026): times are in Universal Time
Last verified: 2026-11-14
Researched and written by Estuardo Enriquez for belizetravelblog.com, an independent site with no connection to any airport, airline, tour operator or government body.