Whale watching

[6] This manual, later translated into Spanish, French, Indonesian, Japanese, Chinese and Dutch, with co-sponsorship from WDCS, IFAW and Global Ocean was updated in English in 2012 in ebook form.

In Brazil, humpbacks are observed off Salvador in Bahia State and at the National Marine Park of Abrolhos during their breeding season in austral winter and spring.

[11] Tidal straits, inlets, lagoons, and varying water temperatures provide diverse habitats for multiple cetacean species.

Commercial car ferries crossing the Bay of Biscay from Britain and Ireland to Spain and France often pass by enormous blue whales and much smaller harbor porpoise.

In Northern Norway (Nordland and Troms counties) orcas are visible in the Vestfjorden, Tysfjorden, Ofotfjorden and Andfjorden as the herring gathers in the fjords to stay over the winter and off the Lofoten islands during the summer.

The continental shelf Eggakanten and deep water where the sperm whales congregate, is very close to shore, beginning only 7,000 meters (23,000 ft) from the Andenes harbour.

In the middle of the Northeast Atlantic, around the Madeira, the Azores and the Cape Verde archipelagos, whale watching is on the increase and popular due to more protection and education.

In the Canary Islands it is possible to see these and others, such as the blue, beaked, false killer, and Bryde's whale, and the Atlantic spotted, rough-toothed, and Risso's dolphin.

In New England and off the east coast of Long Island in the United States, the whale watching season typically takes place from about mid-spring through October, depending both on weather and precise location.

For generations, areas like the Gulf of Maine and Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (part of the inner waters formed by Cape Cod's hooked shape) have been important feeding grounds for these species: to this day a very large portion of the waters off the Eastern Seaboard are rich in sand lance and other nutritious treats for mothers to teach their calves to feed on.

In recent years it is also not uncommon to see these animals playing and feeding in harbors, including New York City or Boston where fish species of interest to the whales have lately returned in astonishing numbers.

[14] Because of the relative diversity of whales and dolphins within easy access of shore, cetacean research takes place at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and the Riverhead Foundation among other centers.

Eastern Canada has many whale watching tours in the estuary and gulf of St. Laurence River, in Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, Nova Scotia or New Brunswick.

Another popular whale-watching area is at Tadoussac, Quebec, where Belugas favor the extreme depth and admixture of cold fresh water from the Saguenay River into the inland end of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

[16] The waters surrounding Virginia are also a known migration corridor for the endangered North Atlantic right whale: Pregnant females must pass through this area around December to reach their birthing grounds down the coast in Georgia and Florida.

During winter and summer, pygmy blue and sperm whales cross the southern tip of the island, migrating to the warmer waters of Southeast Asia.

In Colombia, the towns of Bahía Solano and Nuquí are visited by a large number of Humpback whales from late July to the beginning of October.

In Ecuador, from June to September, there are many sites from which large groups of humpback whales can be seen, including Isla de la Plata (AKA Little Galapagos) and Salinas, at the tip of the Santa Elena Peninsula.

These mammals are typically seen in summer months, but this blue whale was spotted out of season, heading north, close to the Balboa Pier and Newport Beach shoreline.

In the summer, after thousands of whales have made their way to the rich feeding grounds of Alaska waters, sightings are extremely common.

Japan has a range of whale and dolphin watching businesses on all main islands and Okinawa, Zamami, Ogasawara, Mikura-Jima and Miyake-jima.

[2] In the Philippines, over thirty species of whales and dolphins can be observed around Pamilacan in Central Visayas, Davao Gulf, the northern coast of the province-island Babuyan Islands in Batanes, Pasaleng Bay, and Malampaya Sound, Palawan.

In the northernmost province of Batanes, at least 12 species of whales and dolphins has been sighted, making it the single location in the country with the highest cetacean diversity.

[33][34] The Gulf of Corcovado is "arguably the largest feeding and nursing ground for blue whales [...] in the entire Southern Hemisphere".

Sydney, Eden, Port Stephens, Narooma and Byron Bay in New South Wales are other popular hot spots for tours from May to November.

They are often readily viewed from the coast around Encounter Bay near Victor Harbor and up to a hundred at a time may be seen from the cliff tops at the head of the Great Australian Bight near Yalata.

[36] In South Australia whales are watched in the Great Australian Bight Marine Park areas and closer to Adelaide at Victor Harbor.

[1] Whale watching and hunting take place in different regions of Canada: the former mainly on Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the latter exclusively in the Arctic.

Pro-whaling organisations such as the High North Alliance on the other hand, claim that some whale-watching companies in Iceland are surviving only because they receive funding from anti-whaling organizations.

In 2020, Iceland ceased whaling activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and decreasing sales to Japan limited the feasibility of a harvest.