Whale Watching

Close to shore and lots of dolphins and 6 humpbacks again! Our last trip of the season turned out to be spectacular. Once again, we had unlimited visibility as we made our way past Montauk Light. The NNE winds were strong and we bounced a bit until we turned westward and headed along the shore. Early on we found a humpback, one that we’d seen 5 days earlier, as well as a group (12) of Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphins. Later we found more juvenile humpbacks that we’ve been seeing the past few trips. Predominantly searching for and feeding Atlantic menhaden (bunker). Juvenile humpbacks are those 12m (39.37 feet) or less. Typically, these are the ones found near shore.  Offshore is where we’d typically find adults, including moms and calves.  Humpback calves typically stay with mom for about 12 months. Soon the…

Another successful trip with 4 different humpback whales spotted! We’ve also added 1 more trip 9/19/26 (10AM-4PM) Another wonderful nearshore trip on the Viking Star. We stayed relatively close to the shoreline to view juvenile humpback whales feeding on Atlantic Menhaden (AKA bunker). Juvenile humpbacks are those that are under 12 meters (39.37 feet) in…

*We have added a trip for Sunday, Sept 20 since the sightings are still great! Departs at 10AM and returns at 4PM. Book online at vikingfleet.com or give us a call at 631-668-5700 This trip was a wet but successful one! Rain was falling as we left the dock and continued throughout most of the…

Close to shore and lots of humpbacks! Our trip on the Viking Star left Montauk on a perfect day with calm seas, blue skies and a light breeze.  We had just rounded Montauk Point when we spotted a pod of Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphins, about 15-20 individuals.  Our vessel stopped, as we watched them, when several dolphins came up to and around our bow, swam away and then came back again. Tamanend’s have not usually been making these close approaches, and the passengers really enjoyed the encounter. Proceeding along the south shore eastward, we started passing huge schools of menhaden at the surface.  These fish, in their huge “bait balls”, were a mass of flashing silver scales, and are an important part of the marine food chain.  Sure enough, in a few minutes, we saw our first humpback whales eating them. …

Our preantepenultimate trip (4th from last) did not disappoint us. We traveled eastward at first to an area where we’ve regularly seen Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphins and found several groups of 20-25 each. After a while with the dolphins we decided to head W  to eventually turn to the SW to encounter calmer seas and look for…

It was an absolutely beautiful day to spend the holiday on the water! With sunny skies, excellent visibility, and refreshing breezes, we headed out along the shore following reports of whales near the shore. We found our first whale early, a juvenile humpback off the town of Montauk, in 50 feet of water. The whale was likely feeding at depth completing high fluking dives and long down times. A blow belonging to a second whale was observed in the distance so after spending some time with the first one, we headed out to investigate the second. On our way, one of our volunteers spotted a pod of dolphins to our side, so we changed course to check them out. The dolphins, Tamanend’s bottlenose, were broken up into two large groups, totally 70-90 individuals. After enjoying some time with them, we…

4 different cetacean species!! This season had been full of surprises, but nothing come close to what we saw at our 2nd stop of this trip. Our first stop was to observe a small group of Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphins, those light greyish bottlenose dolphins seen near shore in both sides of the LI since 2009….

With just a little more than a week left to our 2026 season, we headed out along the shore following reports of nearshore cetaceans (whales and dolphins) from the previous day (including some encountered on Friday’s trip). Cetaceans can travel incredible distances in a single day so we never know what to expect and understand…

Dolphins, whales, hammerhead shark, bald eagle, and a whole lot more   We decided to head west nearer to shore because of reports of juvenile humpbacks, and find them we did, along with a 6 year old humpbacl a bit further off shore that we’d seen in late August. A wonderful trip with nearly 120…

As we always do, we began our trip reminding passengers that we have no idea what we will see as these are wild animals that can move tremendous distances and we are here to observe their natural behaviors (this is not a scripted experience with baited or caged animals); every trip is different. On many occasions this season, that has meant surprises that we could have never anticipated; encounters and observations rarely seen and some more often seen, but always unexpected and amazing. Unfortunately, it also means that sometimes we may find no whales or dolphins at all, and although extremely rare, that was the case aboard Sunday’s adventure. As we sailed through the area where two different humpbacks were encountered just the day prior, it was evident that both whales moved on and no sign of them could be…