Perce, Canada - How Late Does the Whale Watching Season Last?

My husband and I will be cruising the Crystal Serenity with a stop in Gaspe, Canada on October 15. From Gaspe, we would like to go to Perce. Does anyone know how late the whale watching season lasts in Perce? It looks like the boat tours run until October 30, but I'm wondering whether there are still lots of whales to see, or whether the whale opportunities will be sparse? No need to take a whale watching tour if there aren't any whales still in the area!

Thanks,

Shelley

There will be whales, but not as many by mid-October. Some Blues stay in the Gulf right through January, but they're not exactly a large population so even though they're the biggest thing in the ocean odds of sightings are pretty low any time.

The website for the Gaspé whale watching tour is very useful - they track all sightings back to 2006. Last trip for them is usually first week of October/end of September. The migratory species head south - even if they just stuck to a feeding pace of a handful of km/h it won't take them two weeks to pass the Percé area either, and they normally swim much quicker when they're en route up or down the coast.

North side of Cape Breton the tours tend to stop mid-October, which shows that the bulk of the population is already heading further south then Nova Scotia by the time you'll be in Gaspé. Boston tours go out until into November (there's some excellent feeding around Stellwagen Bank so lots of whales don't go any further north then there - I don't mean to imply that they all cruise right up into Canadian waters then back down again...)

The good news is that you'll be guaranteed to see Belugas in Saguenay, your next stop. Belugas are resident in the St Lawrence & Saguenay all year round, and I see this cruise actually travels up the Saguenay - you might see them from the ship, but small boat tours should definitely be able to find them.

How about early to mid May? We will be at Gaspe on the 13th - will we see any whales then?

How about early to mid May? We will be at Gaspe on the 13th - will we see any whales then?

Always a chance - but it's on the early side. They do consistently spot Fin, Blue, Minke and Humpbacks early June so there will be some whales around

If you check the Gaspe whalewatch website I linked above you'll see that first week in June is the earliest they run trips - if there were lots of whales consistently in May, they'd be running boats then too (Victoria day is Unofficial Canadian Summer and everyone gets a long weekend, so there tends to be a lot of local tourism mid-late May).

Thanks for your responses!

Shelley