The BEST places to see dolphins (in my humble opinion)
Three-minute read
I’ve been whale watching since I was 12 and have been lucky enough to travel to a lot of cool places that have dolphins.
If you want a guaranteed sighting of bottlenose dolphins, you can’t beat Galveston, Texas. It’s on the Gulf coast and even though it’s a working port I have never seen so many bottlenoses in one place in my entire life.
My tip is to head for Old Town and sit yourself down on the edge of the dock. You’ll see dolphins, I can all but promise that! Galveston is my number one choice because you can watch the dolphins from land. You aren’t disturbing them at all but you’re still within feet of them. It’s my happy place.
Same deal in Naples, Florida. Make your way to the end of the pier just before sunset and you’ll see bottlenoses hunting in the water below you. You’ll also see bonus bats emerge from the hut at the end of the pier as dusk falls. Two echolocating animals in one sighting, how cool is that?!
If you’re interested in seeing a wider variety of dolphin species I can thoroughly recommend the Bay of Biscay. That’s the mass of water tucked between the west coast of France and the northern coast of Spain.
You can’t go whale watching there in the traditional sense. All the action is too far from the coast for a day trip. What you need to do is take an overnight voyage.
There are ferries that sail between Portsmouth and Plymouth in the UK and Santander and Bilbao in Spain. If you book yourself a ticket and spend the daylight hours on deck looking for wildlife you’ll see something.
I used to work on one of these ferries and I never once had a crossing where I didn’t see a whale or dolphin. The bay has enormous pods of common dolphins, acrobatic striped dolphins and bizarre scarred Risso’s dolphins.
You’ve also got a chance of seeing bottlenoses, orcas, fin whales, blue whales and - the weirdest ones - Cuvier’s beaked whales. I have a degree in marine biology and had never heard of those until I got the ferry job.
They feed on deep-dwelling squid so they’ve evolved to be the world’s best divers. I’m talking 4,000 metres. And they stay under water for two hours and 40 minutes. But the kicker is that they only spend an average of two minutes at the surface between dives.
Two minutes? That’s insane to me. Almost three hours without a single breath and they’re good to go again in 120 seconds?
California is another great place to see dolphins. They’ve also got good whales all year round which is pretty neat. A lot of whales migrate so often they are only around for a short time each year.
But in the winter grey whales pass California on their way south to their breeding grounds. In the early summer humpbacks and blue whales head the other direction to find food in the cold waters around Alaska.
California also has sea lions and - my younger sister’s favourite animals - sea otters. Monterey is the place to go for sea otters. Head to Moss Landing in the early hours of the morning and there they’ll be.
I haven’t been to Australia or New Zealand but I know they have a lot of dolphin species that can’t be found elsewhere. Sadly a number of these are endangered, so I couldn’t advise a trip around the world in the hope of seeing Hector’s dolphins. The chances are just too slim.
If you’re interested in seeing orcas, there are different ecotypes spread around the world. They are particularly numerous in the southern hemisphere, specifically Australia, New Zealand and the south pole. Those in the northern hemisphere wanting a solid orca-watching spot may be disappointed.
I’ve seen a lot of orcas in northern Norway, so that’s a good jumping off point. The problem is, the environment is changing. That has an effect on the planet’s wildlife. Orca love herring, but the fish are having to change up their feeding grounds because of rising temperatures (among other factors).
Orcas tend to go wherever their prey is, so it’s hard to predict exactly where they’ll be from year to year. Especially if environmental factors keep prey moving around, searching for ever-dwindling resources.
There are thousands of great places to see wild dolphins I haven’t mentioned. Honestly, they’re pretty much everywhere. Rivers and estuaries, coastal seas and deep ocean, warm tropical bays and the chilly Arctic.
One thing I can say is that after you’ve seen dolphins in the wild, going to a dolphin show really loses its appeal. And if the dolphins don’t want to be near you they have the option to leave, something every captive dolphin is consistently denied.
Watch them in the wild if you can. They’d thank you for it if they could.
