Archives for July 2023

Linda writes:
Last of the real hot days for now and it was beautiful on the water. While still in the inlet saw the Great Egret and Great Blue Heron as well as the Black Crowned Night Herons who were hiding in their usual spots. The osprey nest had at least one bird there. We did not even reach the ocean yet and the temperature was so much cooler! Onto the calm ocean and headed east. Quickly we saw a large amount of dolphins in several pods. They we pretty active so that was fun. Continued north and around Long Beanch there was a whale. It teased us several times by taking deep dives but not showing his tail. At times he seemed to be just hanging at the surface and other times moving more quickly but still not showing his tail. I went to look at my phone and actually said, “ I hope he doesn’t breach now” and viola! A full breach out of the water in front of the boat! Saw it but was not able to get to the camera in time! The sound of the whale slamming down on the water is so loud and the spray so large. That breach was phenomenal. After some more time with this whale we went further up north and then went back along the coast. The beaches were packed. Saw sone cow nosed rays along the way out and back. The water was a little choppy on the way back and you could hear the children laughing and yelling with delight as they got sprayed by the water.
Met sone very nice people on board. Such a great adventure.

LABOR DAY FIREWORKS
LOCATION: JENKINSON’S BOARDWALK
DATE: 09-04-2023
TIME: 9:00PM
Join us for our annual Labor Day Fireworks display at dark as we close our another Summer season!

*Fireworks are weather and wind permitting

Book your tickets for Point Pleasant Jenks Fireworks, today we have a 1 day sale for Point Pleasant beachfront fireworks show, we leave the dock at 7pm sharp and return right after the fireworks around 10pm Regular price is $35

DJ Dave presents a great night of fireworks and music.

Book online now!

Our intern Brooke writes the review today:
Monday, July 17th: Today was one of the best whale watching days of the summer! Our morning 9:30 am trip started off great. We left the inlet and headed North towards Long Branch and for the entire trip we saw tons of bait fish balls sitting right at the surface which was a great sign that our whales were close by. Then, right off of Pier Village we had a whale pop up right next to the boat surprising the crew and everyone on board! He kept coming super close and sticking his head and eyes out of the water to check us out! We stayed with that whale for a little bit before heading back home to prepare for our next trip. On our second trip we saw so many whales we didn’t even know where to look! Again, off of Long Branch we had a breaching whale, a lunge feeding whale, a whale spouting in the distance, and a whale that was flipper slapping very close to the boat! Our guests on board were happily overwhelmed by all the activity around us and everyone got great photos and videos of our active whales! The whales were feeding continuously and acting very playful which made for an incredible day. Today was a beautiful day on the water with amazing whale sightings!

BREAKING NEWS:

Put in your calendars now. Come join DJ Dave Bain for a whale watching and Point Pleasant fireworks cruise on July 27. It is from 7-10, and will take place on The Jersey Girl leaving from the Belmar Marina. It is BYOB. More info on how to get tickets coming soon!

ALL AGES EVENT. 21 to drink.

Jersey Shore Whale Watch Belmar

 

Sunday, July 9th: Today was by far the best whale watching trip of the summer so far! In college I am majoring in Marine Biology and already have lots of prior knowledge regarding humpback whales but since I began interning on the boat I have learned so much more information. My favorite thing that I am able to experience is all the incredible unique behaviors that the humpback whales exhibit day to day. Today was one of those days that left me speechless. After finding our whale off of Long Branch on our trip today we noticed it was chin slapping, which is a common humpback behavior where they pop their heads and upper bodies out of the water then slap their chins down into the water. They do this to try and remove some of the barnacles on their chins. The whale we saw today was continuously chin slapping about every 10 seconds for almost 15 minutes straight! He even circled around the entire boat for everyone to get a good look. I have never heard of or experienced a humpback chin slapping so many times in a row. It was a spectacular sight! He then began flipper slapping which is also a very interesting behavior to see! Today was definitely one of my favorite days out whale watching and I look forward to the rest of the summer!

Saturday we did three Whale Watching trips. We saw Whales on all three trips to III Whales on the afternoon and evening trip. We also saw dolphins. It seems like it’s almost peak season right now. Whales are everywhere. Come on out with us Jersey Shore Whale Watch on her boat jersey girl. See you soon.

Linda writes:

July 4th whale watch. Was hoping to get the trip in and it looked promising as we left the dock that indeed that would happen. In the inlet saw the ospray on the nest as well as a Great Egret. Once on the ocean, relief from the heat and humidity! It must have been at least a 10 degree drop in temperature . Met many passengers as everyone was so excited to be whale watching. I recognized one of the passengers but did not remember from where. Turns out she was on a trip in June when the Jersey Gurl did not see a whale. Therefore she was back on the boat for free on July 4th. It does not matter the day you come back as long as the boat is not at full capacity.

Knew we were headed north but that is where the storms were expected to come across NJ and out to the ocean. Therefore we would have a small window before we would need to turn around or head of to the east. Saw some bait fish, a few dolphins along the way. It was misty/foggy/hazy and we could not see NYC but that changed with the weather conditions. Started to sprinkle and just took out my poncho but was resisting putting it on. Then the word was we were going to head back to get out of the path of the storm. So we made a turn and as we did, something jumped out of the water to our left and crashed down into the ocean! Sure enough, a humpback whale just lunge fed! Wouldn’t you know it, no more rain!! This whale delighted us with some more lunge feeds and when he was coming to the surface to breathe, he was right with the dolphins. It is funny how the entire trip north we only saw a handful of dolphins and now they were EVERYWHERE. Where do you look: whale, dolphins to your left, to the right, infront of you? The dolphins were very active and breaching out of the water all over where ever you looked! Two more whales were spotted but as we headed back, they were not seen.

The children on the boat were so excited (so were the adults). When one child was asked if he saw dolphins, his answer was he saw a gazillion. My, that is a lot of dolphins!

On the way back to the dock, we saw even more dolphins. The clouds were fantastic and so unusual too! In the inlet spotted 2 Black Crowned night herons as well as a great Egret. What did we misss seeing today? But of course an American Bald Eagle! That would have been the icing on the July 4th cake!
What a fantastic day with whales and dolphins as well as good friends.

Saturday, July 1st: Today was a beautiful day for whale watching! It was a warm and sunny 80° day with clear blue skies. After leaving the Belmar inlet we headed North up into Long Branch to look for the whale that was spotted yesterday. On our way North we passed some bottlenose dolphins swimming by. Once we reached Sea Bright we saw a whale spout about a mile in the distance and headed right to it! We got to spend some time with a humpback whale that was continuously lunge feeding out of the water multiple times over and over again! This made for great videos and pictures for all our guests on with us today. We even got a glimpse of the whales tail flukes as we were about to leave which was incredible! It was another gorgeous trip whale watching!

Linda writes about our 2nd trip in the afternoon:

Second trip started right as we got back to the dock. Looking for the Egret and he flew in an landed at a place we could get great photos. The BCNight Heron also flew by and were able to get some good photos! Out the inlet and headed East and then North. Saw a brown pelican. Never saw one before but they had been seen previously by the Jersey Girl. As we were approaching the area from this morning’s sightings, sure enough we saw a humpback whale. Turns out this was the same whale, # 253. There was another whale in the area so we tried to watch both. Saw the tail of one of them. There was a third whale to our East but further out. Of interest, we first saw #253 last year in May. We saw him this year in May. Last year and this year we saw him on July 1. Everything has a rhythm, a pattern in life. Headed to another whale but only saw his spouts. so we had a whale on both sides of the boat. Later saw a third different spout! Then it was time to live and head home. Today the moon was supposed to rise a few minutes after 7 pm. Unfortunately with the smokey/cloudy conditions, we did not get to see the almost full moon over ocean. Long but great day on the ocean.