Newport Landing Whale Watching

Newport Landing Whale Watching Whale watching in Orange County! Cruises leave year-round, with daily departures. We offer multiple 2.5 hour whale watching excursions daily, year round!
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Each season has unique species: Summertime Blue Whales, Fall- pring Gray Whales, and year round sightings of fin whales, humpbacks, minke and more! Call for reservations: 949-675-0551!

Yesterday was beautiful - both the humpback whales and bottlenose dolphins were flying out of the water! We’ve had some ...
05/02/2025

Yesterday was beautiful - both the humpback whales and bottlenose dolphins were flying out of the water!

We’ve had some great variety of sightings in the last few days. While the last gray whales of the season are expected to pass any day now, fin whales and humpback whales have arrived in search of feeding opportunities. This has made for some excellent whale watching, as we have seen lunge-feeding and breaching several times this past week!

Excellent photos from yesterday courtesy of

04/29/2025

A pair of fin whales stopped by the Ultimate Whale Watch to say “hello” today! This fun duo was chasing around groups of bottlenose dolphins and circling our stationary boat. The rain has passed and the weather was beautiful today! We enjoyed calm seas and sightings of 2 fin whales, 4 gray whales, 50 bottlenose dolphins, and 500+ common dolphins. May was an excellent month for whale sightings last year - get ready to come on a trip with us!!

We’ve got BREACHERS! 🥳🥳 Late in the afternoon yesterday, the Ocean Explorer got to watch 2 humpbacks breach, tail throw,...
04/25/2025

We’ve got BREACHERS! 🥳🥳 Late in the afternoon yesterday, the Ocean Explorer got to watch 2 humpbacks breach, tail throw, and pectoral fin-slap!

Humpback whales, gray whales (cow/calf), fin whales, and minke whales have all been spotted by our boats in the last week. We’ve also had great pods of bottlenose dolphins and a handful of common dolphin megapods lately too!

Great photos from

03/22/2025

BASKING SHARK!! 😱😱 Today’s passengers on the Catallac got amazing looks at this SUPER RARE visitor to Newport Beach!

Similar to the more commonly-known whale sharks, basking sharks are giant, harmless filter feeders! Crossing paths with a basking shark in Southern California is very rare, but a couple have been reported by boats near Long Beach and San Diego recently. We are overjoyed to have seen this special shark today… only 3 miles offshore between the Balboa and Newport Piers!

While this basking show stole the show today, we did also get looks at gray whales and dolphins too. 🐋🐬

Excellent find today by Captain Larry and this video is provided courtesy of our crew member Matt!

We saw LOTS of gray whales passing by Newport Beach today! In total we spotted 12 individuals, including: a single, a pa...
03/09/2025

We saw LOTS of gray whales passing by Newport Beach today! In total we spotted 12 individuals, including: a single, a pair, a group of 4, and this group of 5. March is a GREAT month for spotting gray whales; NOW is the time to go!

Fabulous drone photo of today’s pod of 5 from

We're giving away a family 4-pack of whale watching tickets! To enter & qualify for the giveaway you must do the follow:...
03/06/2025

We're giving away a family 4-pack of whale watching tickets!
To enter & qualify for the giveaway you must do the follow:
1. Follow Newport Landing Whale Watching Facebook
2. Comment on this post: Tag a women in your life you'd want to go whale watching with &
3. Tell us why you'd want to go whale watching!
One winner will be picked from our comments and announced next Friday, March 14th- we'll direct message you the information on how to redeem your free whale watching passes.
We're celebrating International Women's Day THIS Saturday March 8th!❤️ We are so proud of the amazing team of women working for our company, including: captains, photographers, deckhands, naturalists, managers, educators, office staff and more!
We're whale watching all month long, and we've just now started to see the beginning of the northbound Gray Whale migration along our coast! BIG Fin Whales have been spotted recently and lots of Common & Bottlenose Dolphin too! It's been a great time to whale watch in Newport Beach.
If you'd like to book a tour with any of our amazing women crew and Captains, we have multiple departure times each day! You can book online at: https://newportwhales.com/whalewatchingtours.html or give us a direct call at 949-675-0550 and we'd love to help you out!

Happy Valentine’s Day! 💘 When viewed from the right angle, the blow of a gray whale resembles that of a near-perfect hea...
02/14/2025

Happy Valentine’s Day! 💘 When viewed from the right angle, the blow of a gray whale resembles that of a near-perfect heart shape. This cool sighting happened Sunday afternoon and several of our boats watched this whale playfully roll around in the shallows near Balboa Pier.

We’re eager for this storm to pass and make our way back out to sea, hopeful to have more amazing encounters like this one!

Photos from

01/31/2025

RARE orca encounter yesterday in Newport Beach! To celebrate we're discounting our whale watching tickets to as low as $18 per person! Visit https://tinyurl.com/mr7nyws8 and use promotional code ORCA18 to get your whale watching tickets for as low as $18!

This unforgettable pod of killer whales was first spotted yesterday afternoon by Capt. Mike of the Ocean Explorer, only 2 miles from the Newport Beach Harbor. Thanks to his sharp eye, many of our passengers aboard our big and small whale watching boats yesterday had a once-in-a-lifetime encounter!

We now know that these curious orcas have only been documented a handful of times since they were first sighted in the mid-1990s in the Monterey Bay by Nancy Black, co-founder of California Killer Whale Project alongside Alisa Schulman Janiger. The last reported sighting of the pod was in 2023 in the Santa Barbara area, according to Alisa. They’ve gone as long as six, even eight years between sightings.

These whales are considered to be an ecotype of orca called Bigg’s transient orcas, which primarily feed on marine mammals. When our boat crew at Davey's Locker first spotted them, the pod was seen passing around a carcass of a common dolphin during the encounter. In the late afternoon passengers aboard Newport Coastal Adventure witnessed this pod chase common dolphins, with the youngest killer whale taking the lead on the hunt that lasted well over 30 mins before ending in a successful kill of another dolphin.

You never know what you'll see out on the ocean! Whenever killer whales are spotted in our area, we are always on high alert for more potential sightings. Don't miss an opportunity to join us this weekend, tap the link in our bio to book or give us a call at 949-675-0550 and we'd be happy to help you over the phone book your next reservation with us.

Video Delaney Trowbridge Photography

ORCAS TODAY! 🐼💕 This afternoon, Captain Mike Owens () found a pod of five orcas only 2 miles from the harbor! Not only a...
01/31/2025

ORCAS TODAY! 🐼💕 This afternoon, Captain Mike Owens () found a pod of five orcas only 2 miles from the harbor! Not only are orcas rare to sight on our trips, but this particular pod (identified as the CA56s and CA133) has NEVER been documented this far south before.

You never know what you could see on a whale watch! We typically sight orcas only a few times a year and they spend their entire lives on the move. The odds are never high of seeing them, but the odds are never zero either!

Photo 1 from
Photo 2 from

We saw ORCAS today! 🤩 The epic find was made this morning by off of Laguna Beach and we watched this pod travel up the ...
12/28/2024

We saw ORCAS today! 🤩 The epic find was made this morning by off of Laguna Beach and we watched this pod travel up the coast almost all day long. These are the same orcas seen recently on December 15th, identified as the CA51s - a well-known family of 4 orcas. Chances are very low that we will see them again tomorrow, as we left them far from the harbor moving away from the area.

Photo 1 by
Photo 2 by

12/27/2024

RARE SIGHTING of the CA51 Killer Whale Pod Spotted in Newport Beach!
This orca pod was first spotted this morning around 9am by Captains aboard Newport Coastal Adventure whale watching boats, just off of Laguna Beach, and again in the afternoon, close to the coast- within 3 miles of Newport Beach Harbor. This pod of orcas is well known among California whale watching enthusiasts as the CA51 pod, a family or orcas with a reputation for their playful nature interacting with boats.

The pod spotted today included the matriarch, CA51 Star (~40yrs old), and her three offspring, sons CA51B Orion and CA51C Bumper (known for his distinctive 6ft tall dorsal fin & playful behavior around boats), and daughter CA51E Comet. This pod of killer whales is considered to be ‘transient’ orcas, which means that they have a large range they cover between southeast Alaska to the Mexico border and primarily feed on marine mammals like seals and sea lions. This pod was also seen briefly on December 15th of this year ~17 miles off the coast of Orange County by Newport Coastal Adventure Zodiac boats. Prior to the brief sighting in mid Dec. of this year, the CA51 pod hasn’t been seen locally in about six years.

Lucky passengers aboard our whale watching boats were thrilled to see this family of orcas again today, as they used to be one of the most frequently-sighted killer whale pods in Southern California between 2012-2018, but now, we don’t encounter them much at all. This killer whale family seems to be spending their time in other areas nowadays. Between 2012-2018 they appeared almost like clock-work around New Years Eve / New Years day along the coast of Southern California each year. Why did they do this? It’s unclear, but they seemed to be on a schedule, likely a sign that seals and sea lions that these whales hunt have been plentiful in our area during that time of the year.

Last year between December-February of 2024, Newport Beach whale watching boats were lucky to have over 11 separate encounters with a different pod of killer whales known as Eastern Tropical Pacific killer whales (EPT’s). Our whale watching boats during those encounters were lucky to have so many close encounters, as these whales were not shy of boats and even actively hunted dolphin off the coast.

Each pod of killer whales will have their own unique behaviors, and are one of the smartest animals on the planet so it’s hard to predict if the CA51 family pod will continue to hang around in the waters off Orange County, or if other orca pods will make an appearance in the coming weeks, but our boats are always on high alert for more killer whale sightings during this time in the year – especially when they are sighted locally. We’ll have whale watching boats running out of Newport Beach harbor all weekend, and we’re looking forward to more lucky encounters with this famous family pod.

We've got trips online ALL WEEKEND, you never know, these whales may decide to stick around! Book at www.newportwhales.com or give us a call at 949-675-0550.

KILLER WHALES seen today by ’s late afternoon trip! The pod of 4 was immediately recognized by some of our crew as the C...
12/16/2024

KILLER WHALES seen today by ’s late afternoon trip! The pod of 4 was immediately recognized by some of our crew as the CA51s - a well-known family belonging to the California Transient population. While we saw killer whales back in April of this year, we haven’t seen the CA51s in our waters since 2018!

They watched the killer whales consistently trending up the coast, leaving them 17 miles from Newport harbor. Chances are low that they’ll stick around in the area, but it’s not impossible!

Pictured here is CA51C “Bumper” beautifully captured by Capt. Dave .tv

Address

400 Main Street
Newport Beach, CA
92661

Opening Hours

Monday 7am - 7pm
Tuesday 7am - 7pm
Wednesday 7am - 7pm
Thursday 7am - 7pm
Friday 7am - 7pm
Saturday 7am - 7pm
Sunday 7am - 7pm

Telephone

+19496750550

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Welcome aboard Newport Beach’s original whale watching & dolphin tours in Orange County! Together we’ll sail aboard our state of the art ships in search of wildlife while enjoying a suite of amenities aimed to enhance your experience. Our experienced Captains, Crew, & Naturalists will guide you as we view some of the most amazing wildlife in the Pacific Ocean. Here in Southern California we see giant Blue Whales, energetic Humpback Whales, friendly Gray Whales, awe-inspiring Fin Whales, charismatic Minke Whales, & several other species! Our most common sighting is the playful and energetic dolphins that can be seen by the hundreds! Other sightings include California Sea Lions, Pelicans, Ocean Sunfish, and more! We have cruise departures leaving daily year-round. Every cruise is a unique adventure.

Call for reservations: 949-675-0551 or visit us online at at www.NewportWhales.com for booking information! We hope to see you soon!