Last summer I shelled out a hefty chunk of change to take my family whale watching on Vancouver Island - we were greatly disappointed. We did several pods of Orca whales but we were so far away from them you practically needed binoculars.
Can anyone tell me if the NE experience is any better?
Yes, I already know that whales are wild animals and that there are no guarantees of seeing any whales, let alone getting close to them. I already know that on any given trip the conditions can change dramatically - however - because we are also dealing with professional organizations that have this down to a science i am just wondering how close the typical boats get to this creatures in NE.
Thanks

I've been on three, two out of Gloucester, MA and one out of Boston. The boats went to the same area, but Gloucester was a shorter boat ride.

We saw several whales on the first one, none on the second, and a ton of whales on the third. The second company gave us a ticket to come back again, since they had a "guarantee". I think the boats try to stay back a little farther than they used to, but we could see all or most of them without binoculars.

MareW,
Thanks for the feedback - just don't think those are good enough odds for me to do it again. Actually, it is much cheaper to go whale watching on the East Coast than it was on the West (at least where I went) but after the disappointment of seeing them from so far away I don't want to waste anymore money on this kind of hit or miss activity.
thanks - Banff

We've been out of Provincetown on three trips and have seen many whales on every trip, once we saw finbacks, humpbacks, and white sided dolphins. We also have seen them spouting from the shore, both from the National Park Visitor's Center deck in Provincelands and from the top of the dunes in North Truro. From the shore, the spouts were visible with the naked eye, but we also put the binoculars to them for a better view.

There's wonderful whale watching off Grand Manan Island in Canada. We went out in a schooner and saw many whales, and the experience of being on a schooner for the day was delightful. Captain Jim was respectful of the whales, which we thought was just fine, but we were able to get quite close to them. A friend of ours was out in a kayak off Grand Manan and had a whale swm right under her!
We have also taken the whale watching trip out of the New England Aquarium in Boston, and we got very close to whales on that trip. We could almost have touched them. The ride out lasted a couple of hours, but it was a thrill to be on the sea in a relatively small boat so far from land.
While whale watching in Alaska, we saw a number of whales bubble net feeding. The naturalist who was with us said that was a rather rare experience, and she was quite thrilled to have seen it I learned on that trip to be less concerned about taking pictures, and to just enjoy to very special experience of being close to these seemingly friendly and inquisitive giants of the sea.

In New England, like anywhere else, it probably depends on the time of year.

There are regulations about how close boats can approach whales, so captains can't just maneuver right up next to them.

There are no regulations about how close whales can approach boats, of course. We had a humpback swim under a boat I was on out of Gloucester. We saw several humpbacks that trip (without need binoculars), including some bubble feeding, but no spy-hopping (where they stick their heads up out of the water to look at you) or leaping out of the water. Also saw several finbacks (without needing binoculars). But they weren't exactly right next to us.

I have also been out of Ogunquit, Maine. Had to go much farther out but did eventually find finback whales. Also had a white-sided dolphin swimming beside us as we approached land on the return and saw a pilot whale as well.

The pictures whale watch companies use in their advertising show the absolute best of the best. Don't expect that you will have whales popping up next to your boat left and right or leaping out of the water right in front of you, and you won't be disappointed.

And, indeed, the number of whales and their activity levels vary from year to year, from day to day, and even form hour to hour on a given day. Whale watch companies have technology they use to try to guarantee sightings, but they can't give you an iron-clad promise.

Remember that it takes 1-2 hours to reach the whales' feeding grounds as well, and there is not a whole lot to do on the boats except sit and ride.

By the way, the US federal regulations are that boats cannot approach within 100 yards of a whale. What captains usually do is get that distance (and maybe slightly farther) and then cut the engines. If the whale comes closer, great! If it moves away, they will fire up the engines and close the gap.

If there are lots of whales around, then they have to be more careful and keep an eye on all of them, so that the boats do not move in too close. Again, the whales can come as close as they want, but the boats can't approach the whales.

We went whale watching form Montauk - a half day trip and saw several whales - all fairly close up. These trips are on large boats - not the very small ones that are sometimes used on the west coast - so although the whales were close to the boat the people were not that close to the whales. (Boats are two levels with a sizable indoor area on the lower level. The boat's captains obviously kept in touch with each other - so when one spotted whales the other boats would head for the same area.

We saw 4 whales. The 3 adults were clearly visible - no binocs needed, but naturally you could see more with them - and we saw one of them breach - but they didn't approach the boat. The young one - not a real infant but obviously young since it was so much smaller - was fascinated with the boat and approached very close - bobbing up first on one side of it and them on the other - clearly staring at the boat and all of the people. After dong this for about 15 minutes or so one of the adults approached and the young one left - presumably to follow the mother.

This trip was Sept - when I believe many of the whales head further south for the winter. And, of course, there is no guarantee for any specific trip - but when we had made arrangements we were told that no seeing any whales occurred perhaps once a month or less.

Depends on the time of year, obviously, but we were able to see several whales when we took the Boston Aquarium boat. I forget which month it was for sure, maybe July.

Appreciate all the comments - our trip is in June if we do go whale watching.

Cranachin - our boat out west was definitely much farther out than 100 yards but I think the reason for that was b/c the whales were running along the coastline. If I recall correctly we had to stay much farther out from land. While we didn't actually need binoculars, it was very disappointing since we were so far away.

Just to clarify - the boats from Montauk had straight out into the ocean and when we saw the whales we were quite a few mies from land.

Banff - not sure I understand your comment about being out farther than 100 yards. We were several miles offshore both times I have been whale watching from New England. In fact, we were out farther than usual when we went from Maine (maybe as much as 20 miles offshore). It was September then and whales were scarcer, so we had to go farther out to find them, and the captain had about given up when we spotted a couple.

The other trip was from Gloucester, MA, in early June, and we saw quite a few. We were out around 10-12 miles then, I think.

The 100 yards is the closest a boat captain is allowed to approach the whales.

(FWIW, I went whale watching and never left dry land in South Africa. The whales come MUCH closer than 100 yards to the shore along a stretch of coast there! )