July 2023—The Biologist of Quintana Roo
Be sure to scroll below for a link to view the corresponding short documentary on our YouTube channel.
It’s 4:45am and my alarm goes off, starting my day with a less than subtle reminder that I have a long one ahead of me. Never the morning person my whole life, I begin my personal battle against my body—who wants nothing more than to go back to sleep—gathering enough fortitude and strength to get myself out of bed. I’m awake, but not willingly, so I blurt out a curse word under my breath so that my wife doesn’t hear my misery.
The things I put us through to go see whale sharks.
As I stare out our balcony window into dawn’s darkness with silence overtaking one of the otherwise busy streets in downtown Playa del Carmen, a single moving car gives me a sobering reminder. For all my personal sacrifice this fine morning, Luz Maria Guzman and her family have been hard at work for almost two hours getting the boat, materials, and the guest meals ready. All in hopes of a successful day of whale shark encounters, and all in the name of their family-owned and operated business.
The Biologist, or LuzMa, as her many of her friends and acquaintances know her as
“My husband prepares the meals fresh [every morning],” she explains. “I have to prepare the equipment and the gear specific to each customer.” After completing the 1 ½ hour drive to the marina—not accounting for additional time spent providing rides to customers up and down the Mexican Riviera—they have to “prepare and clean the boat, along with staging the food, beverages, and gear.”
For us, searching for whale sharks is not a new adventure. However, this time around I asked local friends to find me an operator that would give us a different experience. Someone that isn’t going to herd us like livestock and dump us in and out of the water as quickly as possible so they can clock out for the day with their earnings. I wanted something personal; I wanted to take something more from the experience than I normally do.
Enter Luz Maria Guzman, co-owner of Buceo Xtabay, a dive service shop based out of Puerto Morelos, Mexico. Known as “LuzMa” amongst the many she’s befriended, she’s been leading whale shark excursions for over a decade in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. With a degree in hydrobiology, chances were good that she would provide the authoritative information and scientific experience we were looking for. Any doubts were quickly extinguished once we reached the site of our first shark encounter in the heart of the protected whale shark federal reserve.
“Hello, Biologist!” shouted someone in Spanish from one of the other boats in the area. “Good morning, Biologist!” roared another. After several more serenades of respect from other operators, I quickly realized this was a daily ode to LuzMa, who humbly gave each calling person their due acknowledgement and attention. Around these parts she’s become known as “La Biologa”, or “The Biologist” in Spanish. A simple yet powerful acknowledgement of her body of work and everything she’s meant to this area over the years.
With her aforementioned degree from the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico City, she landed an opportunity to conduct reef surveys along the entire coast of Quintana Roo in 1985 for the Institute of Marine Sciences and Limnology in Puerto Morelos. “[A complete survey] had never been done before”, she explained. “And that experience—to dive from Contoy to Xcalak—was incredible.”
Hard at work on one of the many projects she’s tackled over her impressive career
Eventually, LuzMa returned to Mexico City where she completed her master's studies in management of biotic resources. It wasn’t until 2006 that fate redirected her life’s path. After Hurricane Wilma destroyed and eroded beaches all along the tourist-rich coasts of Cancun, Puerto Morelos, and Cozumel in 2005, LuzMa was invited to participate in the recovery of the beaches by the Federal Electricity Commission. In that role she worked with a team of fellow biologists and oceanologists inspecting marine areas for the extraction of sand to restore the damaged beaches.
LuzMa currently belongs to a group named Guardians of the Reefs in Puerto Morelos that focuses on reef surveys and recovery after major catastrophes such as hurricanes and tropical storms. This includes harvesting coral for restoration and reproduction on the mainland, and eventual return of the yield back to the reefs. In her words, that endeavor brings her joy working with and supporting a new generation of conservationists who care deeply about the environment.
LuzMa and her husband Francisco aboard one of their early vessels years ago
During her time working on the recovery of beaches, she would meet her eventual husband, Francisco. A captain and boat owner himself, he joined forces with LuzMa to create their own technical services company, contracted by the Federal Electricity Commission. That endeavor eventually led to opening their own dive shop, Buceo Xtabay, a family business where they focus on educating their customers about the marine ecosystem, and techniques they can employ to help with conservation efforts.
Back in the federal reserve, the whale shark encounters were fortunately good on this day. Not great, but good. Only a couple of whale sharks, but enough organization from the boat operators—working in accordance with established procedures—to give everyone ample time with the sharks. With plans to return on their next outing, me and my wife quietly hoped that our luck would continue.
Giving customers a lesson to ensure they take away more than pictures from this experience
This migration of whale sharks up the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef is the world’s largest of its kind. It is generally agreed that hundreds—if not thousands—of whale sharks follow the plankton rich waters north while feasting on the spawn from the migrating bonito tuna. While Buceo Xtabay specializes in personalized experiences in sea and cenote scuba diving, their favorite time of year is whale shark season—which normally runs from June to September. Their passion to give customers an informative and memorable experience is on display daily. From the whale shark lectures, to insight into the captain’s navigation, to eventually culminating the trip visiting the bird sanctuary in the island of Contoy—where customers enjoy homemade ceviche and fruit arrangements in sustainable and recyclable dishware. However, even with all that experience in tow, nowadays it’s a challenge to find enough of these majestic creatures to live up to the experience customers have come to expect from social media posts. While the previous day was good for us, the next day was not, with every tour operator striking out and not finding a single whale shark all day.
“It was normal [to see] 50, 60 in July and August,” she remarks. “Now we see 5, 6 sharks, sometimes only one. So it does make us question why the numbers are so low.”
According to LuzMa, scientists have several hypotheses, and many are dedicating themselves to gathering more data, hoping to land on a clear explanation for these changes in the annual whale shark migration. “From my point of view, as a biologist, there are many factors,” she explains. “For one, the water feels warm. It’s 29, 30 degrees [Celsius] when in other years it was 27, 28 [degrees]. There is also a visible absence of bonito tuna eggs. Lastly, there’s the hypothesis of El Niño, which is possibly [changing] the conditions. We hope that next year we return to the [normal] number of whale shark sightings.”
Hope can wait until next year. Currently, she has enough problems to worry about, constantly on the radio or in group chats trying to figure out where the whale sharks are located. Are they east in clear blue waters, or did they head west towards the green, murky cold waters? Facing emerging and possibly overwhelming challenges daily, one begins to wonder why LuzMa continues doing this year after year, especially at her age.
“My goal is for more children to come and see [the whale sharks],” she replies, clearly concerned about the future of the animal instead of monetary gain. “Swim with them, so that in the future they set the norms for continuing to conserve them. [I want] the youth involved in the conservation of such a magnificent animal.”
As for her age, one needs to look no further than her mother, who at age 98 recently completed a birthday dive, full scuba gear and all. At a spry age of 64, LuzMa has many more late days and early mornings ahead before reaching the standard set by her mother. A biologist herself, it was she that gave LuzMa the knack for questioning everything she encountered in the ocean, eventually leading LuzMa on to this path to becoming “La Biologa”. Together with her father, a doctor, her parents gave her every opportunity to forge her own path in the water.
One of the many exchanges of information LuzMa and Sarai have on a daily basis
As for the future of LuzMa’s shop, that responsibility currently belongs to her daughter-in-law, Sarai Vargas. Sarai, relatively new to diving in comparison to her elder, is now a divemaster and quickly becoming LuzMa’s right-hand person. If one of LuzMa’s motivations is to forge a bridge between the old and new guard in the hopes of passing on her conservation and diving work, she gets daily practice with Sarai.
“She’s been open to learn,” proudly boasts LuzMa, grinning from ear to ear. “I’ve been able to teach her what I’ve learned over 55 years [of experience]. But I’m also learning much from her. It’s another way to relate [with youngsters]. We the old guard want to direct in one way or another, and she’s showing me that dialog. I want to leave grains of desire. Grains of curiosity. [Grains] of enthusiasm to conserve everything around us. To me, that is the ultimate success with the youth.”
The old and new guard of Buceo Xtabay working to forge a future together
Joined by LuzMa’s stepson—Sarai’s husband—Emmanuel, they have forged a new team with a mixture of new and old ideas. While the four of them as captain, course director, divemaster, and IT/social media engineer respectively formulate their own ideas, they eventually come together in the product they provide their customers daily. All within LuzMa’s vision, and all without compromise.
“I’m not interested in appealing to the masses,” says LuzMa while scoffing at the local mantra that a wet diver is a paying diver. “[I want small groups] to ensure each diver leaves with a memorable experience, but also with new ideas they can apply at home. What better than for [these reefs] to last us 50, 60 years so that future generations can appreciate them? We want to partake with people who enjoy that [mentality] with us.”
As for me and my wife, two weeks of whale shark encounters eventually come to an end. Mostly good days, but some disappointing days sprinkled in between. With my camera gear stowed and our luggage packed, we leave our second home in Playa del Carmen and board our plane home to Houston. As the plane rises from Cancun International Airport over the blue of the Caribbean Sea, I can’t help but think that somewhere below me in those waters, “La Biologa” and her family are hard at work again. I begin to hope that LuzMa finds whale sharks today. I begin to hope that her customers don’t take the experience and her knowledge for granted. But above all, I hope that those grains she spreads will lead others—from new generations—to assume her selfless work right from where she chooses to leave it off. One day, on her terms, but not quite yet. CaaS
Check out the corresponding short documentary our YouTube channel:
Note: If you’re interested in reading about our whale shark trip corresponding to this story, click here. You can also view the corresponding whale shark video on our YouTube channel by clicking here.
