Steveston Seabreeze Adventures

My wife, son, and I went on the Seabreeze Whale Watch trip out of Stevenson, B.C. last week. In all it was an OK experience. We were picked up at our hotel at Canada Place on time. Our naturalist, Connie, was very knowledgeable and provided some visual aids of the animals we might encounter. Some caveats: be aware that the trip to the company headquarters where everyone much check in and pay, is a long and bumpy ride… the van needs new shock absorbers and to have the interior remodeled (sharp objects poke out of the seats and very uncomfortable seats); the ride out to where the whales are is very long and rough (although better coming back); we saw some humpbacks and after what seemed like hours and some orcas. The whales were a long way off, and seated inside the boat, locking through a plastic «windshield», made viewing difficult. Our main problem was that this trip was entirely too long — six hours out on the water (rather than the 3 to 5 advertised on their website)…we had to reschedule our dinner reservations. The few minutes of seeing dorsal fins or flippers is not worth that amount of time. From our hotel pickup to drop off was a total of eight hours (10am to 6 pm).

Perfect way to spend a summer afternoon. We saw orcas and a hump back whale which was very cool and amazing. Our tour guide Rachel is extremely knowledgable and passionate about the environment and the animals as well as conservation. Our boat driver Billy kept us safe and drove like a race car driver to ensure that we got to see and experience as much as possible.
Definitely worth the time and money

Had an awesome time: saw a few different pods of transient orcas, harbor seals, three bald eagles, and a humpback whale! One giant male orca swam right along our boat. It was awesome. Recommend sitting in the back of the boat cause it’s less bumpy, and you can get up to the open area more quickly when there are spottings.
The paying process could be expedited a lot with two credit card machines. If you don’t want to wait, I would bring cash so you can check out Stevenson while everyone is paying. Super nice crew otherwise.

What an incredible time we had. First, the staff were incredible. Rowena (I’m certain that’s not her name, or how you spell it, but it’s the best I can do and she totally deserves a shout out even if it’s incorrect) and Mike were great.
We were told we’d be out for 3 – 5 hours, but were actually out for about 6. We saw humpbacks, orcas, porpoises, seals, and sea lions. It was absolutely amazing. Rowena (I know…) has been doing this for 8 years and she said this is maybe only the twentieth time she’s seen all of these varieties.
The company works with several other companies throughout the region to share location information, which almost guarantees sightings. (I think it’s funny that people on here give the company bad reviews when they don’t see anything, as if the charter company has control over the ocean. C’mon people, get a grip!)
On our way back, we encountered a tremendous amount of fog, but Mike was a champ and navigated the waters like a real pro. I think he said he’d never seen fog like that, but you never would’ve known it based on how skillfully he got us back to shore.
There’s water, coffee, a granola bar, and a map (for a $ 1 donation), on which they mark the path you took and the locations of your sightings.
All in all, this was an amazing experience and, despite the bitterness of some of the other reviewers, I couldn’t recommend them more strongly.

I highly recommend whale watching. This company does not have the nicest boats, but they have really great people. Seeing whales up close is amazing. Setting out for 5 – 6 hours seems like a long time but once you see your first whale, the time starts to fly by and before you know it, you will be back on dry land.

This is a scam. We were told that there is a 96% rate of seeing whales. We were out looking for 5 hours and the only animal we saw was one eagle. We were told that we could come back and go again for free. Too bad we live 3,000 miles away and will probably never be in Vancouver again. This is he second whale watch I have been on and haven’t seen anything. I will never fall for this SCAM again!

We had a great experience with the Steveston Seabreeze whale watch. We saw a number of Orcas on the second day of the season on an exceptionally gorgeous day. Captain Bobby (an older Asian guy with a great attitude) and Connie (the Naturalist on board who was the ‘tour guide’) were great hosts and ensured that we got a great view of Orca Whales, Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, and a copule of Bald Eagles. One reviewer mentioned being the furthest boat away, and at one point we were certainly further away… but then two huge male Orcas surfaced near us, and we didn’t try drive away from them (unlike the other reviewer). I’ve been on a number of whale watching trips, mainly on the East Coast of North America… and you’re out in open water, rocking and shaking, getting seasick in the blinding sun… but here amongst the small islands, the water was calm, the scenery was stunning, and watching the whales play, feed, and breach (yes, there was a breach… ridiculous, right?), was one of the highlights I’ve ever experienced in nature. It’s about $ 130/​person… but it’s worth it! … I orginally had four stars, but after writing the reivew… it’s not going to get much better than what we saw. 5 stars!

the best fishing charter I’ve been on! george, the captain, and josh, the assistant, were the best. so informative with all the fishing places, and super helpful. helped us bait everything, untangle the fishing lines, remove the fish from the hooks. totally full-​service, and so nice and thoughtful at the same time.
we caught rock cod, lingcod, and sole. they also had some crab traps, and prawn traps, and we ate everything fresh on board, sashimi-​style and freshly steamed. a wonderful catch that was a fabulous deal. i don’t have enough words to say how fantastic the day was. we fit 12 people on board, and everyone had a great time. it was nice to know that everything was legit, with permits and limits, so we felt safe the whole time. even saw seals during our trip, and hit great spots with instant sole.
george and josh were really great, and i highly recommend them for fishing charters. so fuuuun!!!

First off, everyone who works for this company seems great. And I’m adding a bonus point for having a marine biology student on board.
That said, our whale watch was mightily frustrating and very disappointing overall. I do understand that they are trying to adhere to regulations about keeping a safe distance from the wildlife. But in all cases, we were always the most distant boat out of a dozen or so in the area. And when the whales did approach us, the captain would specifically drive out of their path (understandably I guess, although no other boats did this) to the point where we were again further from the animals than every other boat. Again, I get it — don’t disturb the wildlife — but we remained about three times the distance from the animals than the regulations require (I’d say we were usually 300 yards or more away, often more). It seemed pretty obvious that the captain’s number one priority was not getting hit with a ticket.
All my photos taken with a huge telephoto lens still look ridiculously distant. Many of my shots look like an advertisement for the other companies, because their boats are in the shot, mesmerizingly close to the animals. If you have a regular camera, be prepared to not come home with a single photo.
Additionally, keep in mind that when they say it’s a 3 – 5 hour trip, that means 90 minutes of butt-​pounding cruising to the whales (due to the aluminum body single hull boats they use), then 30 minutes with the whales, then 90+ minutes back again.
There are several other companies operating out of Vancouver that are accessible from downtown, including a big yellow zodiac type boat that looked very comfy (and whose passengers enjoyed a pod of killer whales swimming within 20 feet of the boat — which we witnessed from about 300 yards away)