“WOW…This trip was EPIC”. Not my words, but from the passengers on this Whale and Dolphin watch on the American Princess with Gotham Whale. As a matter of fact, Captain Frank and the crew of the AP said the same exact words and they see this stuff every day! And I will say this trip was EPIC on so many levels.

Conditions were good. The waves were 1ft-3ft.  The winds were light and variable with no chop but some texture on the water. Temps in the mid 70’s. A little chill in the air with the water temp around 57-61 degrees.

We headed out of Breezy and as soon as we turned the corner from Lower New York Bay and Breezy jetty into the Atlantic Ocean...IT WAS ON! Dolphins were the show. They were in the shallow waters but past the break. They were all around with a few calves in the mix. We traveled with them for a bit hugging the shore when we saw a blow like 3000 yards away.

We headed towards the blow and it segwayed into three-whales. The Bunker bait fish was everywhere. In dark patches, on the surface and snapping away. We caught up with the humpbacks, the whales were separated by about 500 feet, each doing their own thing. In the beginning it was mostly sub surface feeding, why waste energy when you don’t have to. Then BAM…they let loose. Hitting the bunker schools from below with some awesome lunge feedings. They whales got closer and closer to each other and then were basically feeding together. Some lunge feeding others sub surface feeding. But, at times the whales were bubble net feeding. It is something we don’t really see too often. I am guessing because it’s not too deep here. When the bait fish are on the surface, snapping away they are so dense, bubble net feeding is not needed. But what do I know?

At times the whales were literally on top of each other very close to the boat and then branched off with one going deep, and two staying closer to the shore. One of the whales started giving us a show, while the other kept on feeding. The big show started off with a few very impressive breaches, into twisting back breaches followed by chin slaps and pectoral fin slaps. Twisting and turning its body, this whale did not get exhausted. It just kept going into non-stop tail slaps, first it was right side up and then upside down. Throwing in some very powerful tail throws. It was an impressive show! We would have stayed and watched this whale for hours, but we had to head back to the dock. As we drove away it kept on splashing about. WOW what an epic day whale watching with three very active Humpbacks and 100 dolphins seen.

If you want to see Whales and Dolphins in this area, I recommend the American Princess Cruises with Gotham Whale. If you are in Montauk on a Sunday or a Wednesday check out the Viking Fleet with CRESLI.