Saleh Bay's whale sharks gather at the bagans — traditional lift-net fishing platforms anchored two to four kilometres offshore — where escaping baitfish create dependable feeding opportunities between April and December each year. The bay, a 40-kilometre basin on Sumbawa's northern coast, supports one of Indonesia's most accessible seasonal aggregations of Rhincodon typus, with individual sharks returning year after year to the same cluster of platforms. Local fishers first documented consistent whale shark presence in the early 2000s; formal tourism protocols and a conservation levy were introduced in 2018 under an agreement between Tarano district authorities and Labuan Jambu village cooperatives. A sumbawa whale shark tour from lombok begins with an overland crossing from Lombok's eastern ports — typically Labuhan Kayangan or Labuhan Lombok — followed by a two-hour ferry to Poto Tano on Sumbawa's western shore, then a three-hour drive northeast to Labuan Jambu, the gateway village on Saleh Bay's southern rim. Most operators structure itineraries as two-day or three-day expeditions to accommodate the six-hour ground transfer and the need for pre-dawn departures to the bagans, where visibility peaks and shark activity is highest between 06:00 and 09:00. Overnight accommodation is arranged in Labuan Jambu guesthouses or, on extended trips, aboard liveaboard vessels anchored in the bay. The whale sharks at Saleh Bay are juveniles and sub-adults, typically three to six metres in length, feeding in vertical postures beneath the platforms' submerged nets. Snorkelers enter the water in small groups under the supervision of local guides trained in passive-observation protocols; touching, chasing, or using flash photography is prohibited under the bay's 2019 code of conduct. Each encounter lasts 30 to 45 minutes, with most tours offering two or three separate platform visits across the morning window. The 70,000 IDR conservation fee, collected per person at the Labuan Jambu coordination post, funds patrol operations and community livelihood programs tied to sustainable tourism. Saleh Bay lies within the Coral Triangle's migratory corridor, and whale shark presence fluctuates with plankton blooms driven by monsoon upwelling. Peak months are July through October, when sightings approach 90 percent reliability; April, May, November, and December see reduced frequency but calmer sea conditions. Multi-day tours from Lombok increasingly incorporate side visits to Moyo Island's fringing reefs or Satonda's crater lake, both within an hour's boat ride from the bagans, extending the expedition's ecological range beyond the single-species focus that defines the lombok to sumbawa whale shark experience.