San Diego Whale Watching

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There appear to be 2 tour operators from the San Diego waterfront giving very similar whale watching tours: Harbor and Hornblower. One affiliated with a local wildlife museum and the other Scripps Aquarium. Does anyone have an opinion on which is better? I don't care about ammenities - I want to see whales as close up as possible.

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I've attended lots of school and youth organization events with both Scripps Institute of Oceanography / Birch Aquarium and the S.D. Natural History Museum and am on both mailing lists. (I'm assuming the SDNHM is the "local wildlife museum" you referred to?) Both organizations are top notch and I have enjoyed the outings with both and learned a lot. Generally I find that the SDNHM folks are a little better at working with kids, but for whale watching, I would pick Scripps. Odds are that no matter who you go with, you are going to see the exact same whales. The boats listen to the same radio traffic, they can see each other stopping for sightings, and so on, so they are all grouping around the same whales. To me, this makes the choice more about the quality of the educational info. With Scripps, I would think you're likely to get someone with more marine mammal experience.

 

This is a great trip and you will enjoy it if you have the right expectations. I know some people go expecting to see whales right alongside the boat, or to see all the behavior you get in a National Geographic special on TV, but it's really not like that. Whales are only here January through March. The best trips are on weekdays because there are fewer boats around. You know about the two vendors that leave from next to the cruise ship pier, but there are many more leaving from just a bit further up the coast. Once the boats find a pod of whales, they may stop the engines and drift a while. There will probably be 3 to 6 foot swells, so if you get motion sick at all, take Bonine before you even get on the whale watching boat. There are laws (and safety considerations) about how close the boats can get to the whales, so you will be seeing them from a fair distance. Binoculars and a zoom on your camera are a good idea. You are most likely to see Gray Whales. Typically you see the vapor when they spout, then you can see their backs roll by and their tail flukes as they dive. You are pretty unlikely to see breaching or spy hopping. You might see dolphins. You will almost certainly see lots of pelicans, herons, gulls, and sea lions.

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There appear to be 2 tour operators from the San Diego waterfront giving very similar whale watching tours: Harbor and Hornblower. One affiliated with a local wildlife museum and the other Scripps Aquarium. Does anyone have an opinion on which is better? I don't care about ammenities - I want to see whales as close up as possible.

 

We went on Hornblower this past January - we did see whales but not very close. The boat was full of people pushing up to the rail. Some of the best places to see the whales were from inside.