I was looking forward to coming home—born and raised in Los Angeles, I lived several of my early adult years in the San Diego area. After spending a few days in Los Angeles catching up—and putting on what felt like 5 lbs of weight due to home cooking—I headed southeast to the suburbs and then to San Diego to catch up with old friends, eventually meeting up with my wife to end the trip encountering leopard sharks in La Jolla Cove. I last saw a leopard shark over 20 years ago in the kelp forests off La Jolla, so I was looking forward to visiting one last old friend, this time from the comfort of the shore.

The world is so vast that often we can’t even see or begin to imagine the largest of marine phenomenon occurring right before our eyes. When you fly into Cancun International Airport and see the vast Caribbean blue waters from the air, little do you realize that during the months of May to September, the largest whale shark migration in the world is occurring. Known as a “whale” for its sheer size, these animals are in fact fish and not mammals. They are sharks, to be exact, and both the world’s largest shark and fish species growing up to 30-40 feet in length.