Northeast - Speaking of Whale Watching.... (NYC area)

Are there good opportunities to whale / dolphin watch out of NY Harbor / Raritan Bay? Tips on where / when to find them?

I think Whale / Dolphin watching would be a great excuse to take some non-fishing people out on a boat ride (i.e., kids, chicks, etc..., but mostly chicks). ;cool; But, I don't want to get hopes up or waste the gas if there's not a good chance of finding some.

As far as I know, there's only 1 or 2 boats in the area (Rockaway) that do this, and I've never heard from anyone that's gone.

Who needs an excuse? Its a boat go out. Have a few pops and enjoy.

Just saying, I got alternatives to heading offshore into blue water looking for something that may not be there.

Whale watching is tough - you don't see them too often closer than 50 nm out (in the 250'+ depths; and most times I have seen them (which is pretty often), they are in the Hudson Canyon (photo).
As for Dolphins, they can be found pretty close to shore - last Sunday, we had a pod of 30-40 Dolphins 4 nm out in 65' of water just West of the Hempstead Reef.

Plenty of dolphin off the coast, at least down between Seaside and AC.

Last week we ran down to AC on the 4th. Didn't see many dolphin going down, but did come across a HUGE school of rays, 100's of them about 5 miles north of AC and a mile offshore.

I turned around and got in front of them and the school split on both sides of the boat going by about 10' away. That was a first for me.

Point being you never know what you may see out there, but if you don't go you won't see anything.

That sounds cool, Nauti! I was looking for something a bit closer to home (out of NYC), but I may be down in Wildwood w/ the boat at the end of August, so I'll be keeping my eyes open during the trip (and may take a break on my way down to watch the AC air show, too...).

-Lee