Bill McKim’s Jersey Shore Whale Watch Tour
We guarantee you will see a whale
Here are two iPhone photos by passenger Drew D. From Saturdays trip, great photos amazing iPhone photos, if anyone else got some send us a copy to [email protected]
Saturday 7/16/22 Species Report
2 humpback whales 🐋
Hundreds of bottlenose dolphins 🐬 stealing the show as usual:)
6+ Wilson’s storm petrels
4+ shearwaters
2+ cownose rays
A lot of people ask the question who has the best, best whale watching east coast. I wiould say we are right near the top with over 80 trips and we usually see one or more whales in fact our record is over 80 trips and only 4 misses in 3 years so we ahace a pretty good idea. The whales are sometimes hard to spot in choppy seas or on a foggy day. We also rely on uour vast array of boat friends who might spot a whale and then tell us where they are. Fishermna seem happy to help whale watching boats as we are not competion for each other. Boats captains always return the favor to each other of all kinds of marine sights and fishing tips!
Join us whale watching we go just a couple miles off shore to where we expect to see the whales. Our trips are 3 hours long and are designed to give us enough time to spot the whales
SO get your family or group together and join us we even have many people that come alone on our trips! Bring your sunscreen and camera dress in layers, the ocean is cooler than inland! Any questions call us at 732.451.6003 so yes you can see whales in New Jersey and New York, join us best whale watching east coast Jersey Shore Whale watch
Whale Watching Trip Report Belmar and Asbury Park NJ Sunday June 14th
This is a question many people ask? is there whale watching near me. The answer is yes We go whale watching 4 times a week in Monmouth County and can also book a private whale watching tour for you and your group during these uncertain time. We offer many trips whale watching trips in Ocean and Monmouth county.
whale watching near me
Bring the entire family on this exciting Belmar, NJ whale watching trip that you won’t soon forget! See why this is a great time to view whales off the coast of New Jersey!
call today and book your trip 732.451.6003 or online at
Coney Island, Amagansett, The Hamptons, Fire Island, Jones Beach, Rockaways, Sandy Hook, Long Beach Island, Lavallette and Point Pleasant Beach are not the only places to see whales, of course.
Despite what ANY whale watch company may claim, you can never really guarantee how many whales will be seen, or even if any whales will be seen, when you go whale watching. We can guarantee a free return ticket (aka “rain check”) if you don’t see a whale, but you can’t guarantee the whales themselves.
That being said, the extremely high productivity of the Jersey Shore coastline area means that whales are usually here, often in good numbers, sometimes and that’s why we have seen whales (at least 1) on over 99% of our trips since 2018. In fact w sometimes we go years without “skunking” (a “skunk” is whale watch industry slang for a trip in which no whales were seen). Most of the time we “skunk” it is due to fog rather than lack of whales (it’s hard to find whales when you can’t see!)
So while it is impossible to say for certain how many individual whales you will see when you go whale watching the most likely answer to this question is: probably between 1 and 5. Pretty vague, huh? Well, that’s because these animals are WILD. They are not captive creatures in the confines of a zoo or aquarium, and they certainly don’t perform tricks for our amusement.
These whales are wild animals that come here to feed in the biologically rich waters the New York Bight. Their abundance is determined by the amount of food available to them. At times (many times, actually) there are so many whales in the area that we can’t possibly visit with them all in the limited time we have on the water. But at other times it takes cooperation between all whale watch boats and fishing boats in the area to find just one or two whales. We never know what we will see when we leave the dock but that’s part of the fun of whale watching! It is unscripted and unpredictable.
Okay, so if we can’t predict exactly how many whales we will see, how about the best time to go look? When is that?
Well, once again it is impossible to say what time of day, or even what time of the year is best to go whale watching because the answer to that question also changes based on the amount of food (ie small schooling fish) available to the whales.
But before we get too hung-up on the total number of whales we might see, consider these questions: If whales had not been hunted to the brink of extinction would they be the iconic symbol of endangered wildlife that they are today?
I suspect not. Remember that these whales are endangered! Their numbers are only a small fraction of what existed in the pre-whaling era. One of the most exciting things about seeing a wild whale is simply encountering an animal which still teeters on the brink of extinction. It is estimated that less than 1% of people living on planet Earth will see a whale in their lifetime. Therefore, any time you see a whale, even one whale, you are truly privileged. To see many whales at one time, as we often do, is a sight VERY few people will ever get a chance to see.
A few people have been asking me about groupon deals this year so I figure i would write down my thoughts.
Groupon leads to bad sight lines on a boat by having too many people on board, the boat needs a certain amount of money for each trip I would rather have us all pay a few more dollars person and have less people on the boat and better sight lines for seeing the whales .
Crowded boats sell deals and groupons I do not use groupon deals as i want us all to have a safe enjoyable trip and i believe we price it fairly and we deliver.
We guarantee you will see a whale with us if you dont your next trip is free. We fill our boat with happy customers who tell their friends about the special day and safe relaxed atmosphere we provide on the ocean during these uncertain Covid 19 times We are all living in. Any questions call us at 732.451.6003
I think groupon is great for buying an item but not so great if its just going to lead to a full boat, less is more these days book now.
summer 2020 one none of us will ever forget.
Here are some photos from our whale watching trip Belmar Marina July 26 2020 Belmar New Jersey Sandy Hook area
Bring your good camera, it wont get wet the boat is huge, but was also bring a camera bag to protect it while we are going to the whale watching area.
As you probably know, composition is key. That being said, photographing from above does not compliment the enormous whale. Shooting from the 2nd florr crows makes the whale appear smaller that if you stay on the boats deck so we recommend staying there. Which leads us to our next point
While being at the front might seem the most sensible thing to do, it’s also the most popular spot. But you’re out there to get in some amazing frames of the whales and you will need a little space to move around. Thus our photographer Bill Mckim recommends staying at the back of the right hand side on the boat. The captain will most often need to turn the boat so he sees the whale clearly for all safety, and if it happens that he’ll choose to have the whale at the left hand side, it will only take 5 seconds to change. There are less people back here and you are away from the iphone crowd!
While I would in almost all situations recommend the Manual mode as it opens doors to photographing in new ways I wouldn’t recommend it while out there. With constant changes in light and the clouds moving around, it’s difficult to be always looking at the built-in meter to decide on aperture and shutter speed. Instead I would recommend the aperture priority mode, setting your ISO as high as you trust your camera to handle (without noise creeping in), and then setting your aperture as high as the lightning allows (A high aperture will reduce the damage if you don’t get the focus on point) . A good rule of thumb is to never let the shutter speed get lower that 1/2000s as you will risk having your photos shaky. I like to shoot at around 4000 of a second.
This tip is a one I love. Often you’ll have the luck to have birds all around, getting one in your frame for comparison to the whale is really fun to underline the size of the whales. But when the birds just don’t go into the frame you can get really creative, putting people inside the frame or even holding some things in front of the camera (if your lens is wide enough)!
This is a common question and the answer is: Just take the your camera bag! Given that you don’t carry more than 2 lenses, you can take your camera bag – with the lenses, onboard. You can keep it inside the steering house and then take it out and switch lenses later on! It’s crucial on a trip like this to have options – If you got a good zoom lens 100-400 is my go to lens for whale watching(100-400mm, 70-200mm) that would be ideal for the first minutes of the tour but then when we get closer it’s great to be able to grab a wider lens (24-105mm).
We had a small group Sunday, but we had fun and were well rewarded with many sightings. We had a hard time deciding whether to look to look left or right, we were out on one of are farther out trips near where the Sea Bass eat and live about 8 miles off shore! We saw at least four different whales, and many dolphins too, some as close to Belmar as just outside the mouth of Shark River.
Danielle our naturalist was able to confirm that the whales were around 35 feet long and were lunge feeding and it was beautiful to see. Whale breath is a unique smells you sometimes get if you are close and downwind from a blowing whale as it surfaces. The sound is loud, and the smell is… Well, lets says unique!
I promise you we do not overcrowd the boat, and we ask everyone to wear a mask while boarding until seated. We want a safe enjoyable trip for everyone. This past weekend we had little children to adults over 80 years, we are respectful of everyone during these times.
Whale Watching trip report Aug 18 2019 , Just amazing ! A Triple Breach
Perfect hot summer weather brought a huge near capacity crowd to the boat everyone was thrilled to see a triple breach! The whale off the coast of Asbury Park was amazing. The Humpback whale breached 3 times in a row , yes i got the first two breaches perfectly the third wtotally out of focus but i will still share it with all of you.
The best comment of the day was by Billy, a great name by the way.. We were coming back into the Shark river in Belmar and billy who works on the boat as a crew and see whales all the time says to me , ” Even i got excited today and I see whales everyday out here!
sightsing was withing 15 mins of leaving Belmar Marina join us soon 732.451.6003
Brand new program starting July 2019!
The Jersey Shore Whale watch is the only whale watching boat that we know of to offer whale Checks. A whale check is our guarantee and commitment to you. If you come out on a paid trip with us and we are unable to see any whales, you will get to come back this season for free to have another opportunity to see them. While we do see whales very often (Over 96% of the time), we sometimes get unlucky, and that is why we came up with whale checks to truly guarantee our customers a chance at seeing a whale. We go even further in 2020 if we need to extend the trip to find the whale we will, only three times in 2020 did we not seen a whale!
Our trips along the coastline of New Jersey are educational and a relaxing day on the ocean. See you soon, any questions call us at 732.451.6003
Some tips and tricks for our whale watch.
We take a very large safe boats to go whale watching some of the boats can hold as many as 80 people so you don’t have to worry about anything about safety on the boats will be a great time great trip kids of all ages love it I’m not sure I would bring an infant there’s really no reason so if you’re going to really remember anything I would probably gets in the way of the parents are in good time just having to hold the baby the whole time brother was young children are welcome to come on the whale watching trip we leave out of Belmar we do weekdays and weekends weekends
I have spoken to a couple of boat captains finback whales of Belmar off the coast of belmar this week we will be going whale watching in May we won’t be going in April because the fin back whales or migrating north up towards Cape Cod Fish just kind of passing through the area so we will be waiting till the whale are feeding in the in the area is the humpback whales feeding the air is off of Sandy Hook down to Manasquan inlet and we know it’s more predictable trip we will see whales. Whale watching is a fun join is https://jerseyshorewhalewatchingtour.com Jersey Shore Whale Watch Tour 
For groups of 10 or more, we offer discounted rates as well as extended personalized services. Student discounts are also available so please ask.
Our Group Sales department is always on hand and prepared to help with any request including specialty or private tours, water transportation, gourmet food, custom apparel, souvenirs, entertainment, team building programs and more.
To learn more about our Group Tours services, please contact Tom Wilson in our group sales office.
[email protected]
