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Jersey Shore Whale Watch Tour 2020 Season

We guarantee you will see a whale

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    • Whale Watching Trip- Weather and Trip Updates 2020 Season -Jersey Shore Whale Watching Tour Belmar NJ
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  • Plan your trip
    • Whale Watching COVID-19 Policies
  • Jersey Whale Watch Tour Tickets 2020
  • Reviews & Contact info
  • Trip Reports
    • Whale Watching Trip- Weather and Trip Updates 2020 Season -Jersey Shore Whale Watching Tour Belmar NJ
    • Trip reports 2018, 2019, 2020 season
    • Whale Photo Contest
jersey shore whale watch 2020 photos

Whale trip Photos

Rare North American Right Whale photographed Jersey Shore coastline

November 6, 2020 //  by bill mckim//  Leave a Comment

A photographer captured rare photos of a North Atlantic right whale off the coast of Long Branch New Jersey this week.

The sighting, captured by photographer Bill Mckim, was confirmed by the Daniele Monaghan of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center where she has worked on Right whale research .

This was a real bucket list photo opportunity.

If you see a right whale, please call the state’s toll-free hotline at 877-WHALE-HELP or 1-888-97-WHALE (94253).

Also, slow your boat to avoid the whale. Do not attempt to approach the whale. Record the latitude and longitude if you can, and slowly move away from the whale to a distance of 500 yards or more.

whale watching trip 4 whales!

North Atlantic Right Whale healthy
North Atlantic Right Whale We photographed November 2020 off the coast of New Jersey, A bucket list photo for whale photographers!

new york bight right whale sightings

Category: Whale trip PhotosTag: North Atlantic right whale, North Atlantic right whale 2020, North Atlantic right whale New Jersey, rare whale new jersey

whale watching gear is in stock now ready to ship!

October 28, 2020 //  by bill mckim//  Leave a Comment

We have tons of new fresh beautiful heavy weight t-shirts and sweatshirts with some pretty cool designs! take a look .
These are the same shirts and sweatshirts we sell on the boats! Getone now support Jersey Shore Whale Watch!
Thanks
Bill

Category: Whale trip Photos

whale watching in November New Jersey

October 28, 2020 //  by bill mckim//  Leave a Comment

I often get asked how long our whale watching season runs I’ll try to answer that a little bit here.

Whales are plentiful in November along the Jersey shore why is that the Atlantic Menhaden fish that the whales love our bigger more plentiful and the striped bass are all around. The whales will eat them all. Humpback whales need to eat hundreds of pounds of fish a day so they come in close to shore because the seabass and the Atlantic Menhaden are in close to shore and they were feet on them and take it all into your mouth makes for great photography there will be tons of boats fishing where we go whale watching it’s interesting seeing the fisherman just fishing as the whales are very close to them.

The whales come down from Canada and Massachusetts on the way to Virginia Florida and the Caribbean so they go along the coast of New Jersey November and December a great month for well watching you should join us just dress warm you’ll be fine the boats not crowded at all plenty of room for social distancing get out there get some fresh air and enjoy the view of the Jersey shore I look forward to another good month we’re watching come out with us.

you can buy tickets online for our trips in November here https://jerseyshorewhalewatchingtour.com
don’t forget we have our all day trip November 7th offshore to see the really big whales , last time we saw 20 different whales! tou can ready about it here https://jerseyshorewhalewatchingtour.com/2020/10/all-day-offshore-whale-watching-trip/

 

 

Category: Whale trip PhotosTag: whale watching in november

Saturday Oct 24th trip report

October 25, 2020 //  by bill mckim//  Leave a Comment

We covered 45 miles of ocean going up and down the coast of New jersey the captain even gave us extra time.We did not see a whale but we did see 100 dolphins sea turtles and more, t was a long day on the ocean im tired!

Category: Whale trip Photos

Trip to the promise land of whales! 60 miles off the coast of NJ

October 20, 2020 //  by bill mckim//  Leave a Comment

Danielle picked an amazing location for this trip.Great work picking a place to go see the deep water whales.

And I believe in a promised land
And I believe in a promised land
And I believe in a promised land
-Bruce Springsteen

We are doing it again next week November 6th! Check only 3 spaces left https://jerseyshorewhalewatchingtour.com/2020/10/all-day-offshore-whale-watching-trip/

Grab your coffee this is long!

Jersey Shore whale watch 12 hour trip report

First, I want to thank everyone who was able to take the day off from the treadmill of life, on Monday and make it to Pleasant Marina at 5:30 AM, thank you very much.

 

The morning started for me when I got up at the ungodly hour of 4:15 AM, grabbing together my camera gear and the T-shirts and sweatshirts I’d be selling on the boat. I had a quick breakfast and got together something for lunch, before packing up the phone chargers and batteries that would be needed to power people’s phones on the boat. Once we get out to sea there is no service anyway so it’s best just to put your phone on airplane mode, but I packed the chargers nonetheless.

 

Trip details

We set sail at 6am sharp, heading away from the New Jersey coastline in the first light of dawn. It can feel a little bit daunting heading out into the vastness of the ocean before it is fully light, but it’s the best time to set sail for whale watching, as we knew we had quite a long voyage ahead of us. As we sailed out of the marina, lights were starting to come on in people’s windows, as the city awoke from its slumber. Little did we know what this day would have in store for us.

 

I began to meet some of the people on the boat, saying hello in a socially distant manner, reflecting this strange new world of COVID-19 we live in today. The boat is large and there was plenty of room to accommodate everybody. I can’t host as many people as I did before the pandemic due to the distancing rules, so I have had to raise my prices slightly, but it was as full a trip as the conditions currently allow, which was great to see. Our naturalist Danielle and her helpers  was onboard, ready to identify the whales we hoped to see.

It took around 4 and a half hours to get into the deep water where Humpback, Fin, Pilot and even the critically endangered Northern Right whales live. Chugging along at around 15 miles per hour, there was plenty of time for people to enjoy a warm drink, have a chat and ready themselves for the incredible experience they were about to enjoy.

The Promise Land
This truly was the promise land of whales, I promise you its worth the effort. Do not miss our next and final off shore trip of the year, for details email us [email protected]

As we got closer to the whales, more boats began to appear, including some from Belmar, Point Pleasant and Barnegat Inlet. All were here for the different reason TUNA FISHING and it was nearly time for us to glimpse our first whale. Around 50 miles from shore, one of the guests named Trisha gave a cry to the captain from the back of the boat. He performed an elegant U-turn and there it was, a majestic Humpback breaching the waves right in front of us. It was only 11am and we’d already checked off one truly incredible animal. The whale was soon joined by another and we floated for some minutes, watching them swim slowly around the boat.

 

Leaving the two whales to enjoy their afternoon, we headed to where a large fleet of boats had gathered. There were whales everywhere, with water erupting from their blowholes in a rhythmic puffing sound, alerting us to their presence. The boats kept a safe distance so as to avoid disturbing the creatures, but many photographs were taken, and everyone was in a hushed silence as we watched, dumbfounded by how many whales were present at the same time. At a rough count, I believe we saw around 15 different individuals, of 3 separate species. This is a simply incredible number, sometimes we go weeks at a time without spotting a single whale, and here we were with 15 whales surrounding us all at once, not to mention the smaller but more playful dolphins which were also frolicking in the area.

It was vitally important to capture this moment, so cameras were quickly at the ready. Trying to photograph whales that don’t know to keep still, whilst you yourself are bobbing over fierce ocean waves is no easy task. I had to keep both hands on the camera to avoid dropping it overboard and was trying to balance against the railings of the boat in order to steady myself. There were several moments when I thought my $8000 digital camera would be lost to the gods of the sea, but it was worth it in the end for the incredible shots that I managed to capture of the whales.

After many hours of watching the whales, it was time to head back to port. We arrived back on land at around 6pm, a full 12 hours after we had set sail. Everyone was exhausted but had had plenty of time to look back at the images they had captured and there were high spirits all round after what we had just witnessed. Timing our return with the setting sun meant that cameras were whipped out once again to snap away at the beautiful sunset over Point Pleasant.

 

Sunrise on the ocean

I’ve been on many whale watching trips over my lifetime, but this particular trip is one that I will never forget, I actually get quite emotional looking back at it. The water was so crystal clear that we could see the whales and smaller dolphins with amazing clarity. They seemed to be playing together, which our naturalist Danielle said was common behaviour in the Caribbean but much more unusual in these waters of ours.

I will let the photos of this Jersey Shore whale watch speak for themselves, but I think it is clear that this was a once in a lifetime experience and well worth all of the money and effort put into making it happen. I hope to head to the Caribbean before too long to continue whale watching, but I doubt I will ever experience anything like this again, a truly magical day at sea.

Bill McKim

We saw Minke, Fin, and Humpback wales and many dolphins.

I will post more photos as i have time to go thru them.

When the world comes 3/4 of the way all the way out of the ocean and your camera is in sleep mode you get this when it wakes up bombed
Order your beautiful Jersey Shore whale watch sweatshirts today

 

 

All day offshore whale watching trip November 2020

Category: Pelagic Birding tours, Whale trip Photos, whales

Nice feature story on Jersey Shore whale Watch by Brian at News12 NJ

October 17, 2020 //  by bill mckim//  Leave a Comment

Take a look at his report, and tell your friends about us please.
https://newjersey.news12.com/increased-whale-sightings-lead-to-resurgence-of-jersey-shore-whale-watching-tours

 

https://newjersey.news12.com/increased-whale-sightings-lead-to-resurgence-of-jersey-shore-whale-watching-tours

Category: Whale trip Photos

Saturday whale watching trip.

October 17, 2020 //  by bill mckim//  Leave a Comment

We had another nice group of people for Saturday as well watch trip we saw two whales and 30 dolphins at sunset it was a beautiful day to be out on the ocean everyone was thrilled if you’re on the trip please take the time to leave a review thank you I hope you enjoyed it as much as we all did another great job done by Danielle and crew

Category: Whale trip Photos

Tail Slapping good time today

October 14, 2020 //  by bill mckim//  Leave a Comment

Everyone enjoyed the whale watching trip today, photo by one of our fans on the trip Anne Marie, nice pictures.
Everyone enjoyed the whale watching trip today, photo by one of our fans on the trip Anne Marie, nice pictures.
Everyone enjoyed the whale watching trip today, photo by one of our fans on the trip Anne Marie, nice pictures.
Everyone enjoyed the whale watching trip today, photo by one of our fans on the trip Anne Marie, nice pictures.
Everyone enjoyed the whale watching trip today, photo by one of our fans on the trip Anne Marie, nice pictures.

We had a  great whale  watching trip today with a special guest Brian from news 12 New Jersey. We headed south towards Manasquan direction we generally don’t go in that direction. We were able to locate two whales on our three hour tour. Our guide Danielle said these were two new whales  that she didn’t have in her extensive catalog so that was good news for her she loves documenting new whales come out with us soon wheels are everywhere we promise that you will see a whale on our trip thanks Bill

here are some photos from today’s trip.

Category: Whale trip Photos

Friday afternoon whale watching trip fan photo

October 11, 2020 //  by bill mckim//  Leave a Comment

Look at this amazing photo one of the people on the boat took of the jumping shark.
I believe Trisha took this photo, thanks for sharing it.

Category: Whale trip Photos

Photos October 10th whale watching trip

October 10, 2020 //  by bill mckim//  Leave a Comment

We found two whales today both were humpback whales we were just 2 miles off the beach today another great whale watching trip our guide Danielle did a great job today spotting the whales.

Category: Whale trip Photos

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905 Route 35
Belmar NJ 07719
1-732.451.6003
[email protected]
Most trips are 1:30pm Please arrive 30 mins early to board the boat and allow time to find free parking

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