The Atlantic bottlenose dolphin population in the waters off Cape May numbers roughly 300 year-round residents, with seasonal humpback and finback whale migrations peaking between March and May as the continental shelf currents carry baitfish northward. Cape May's position at the mouth of Delaware Bay creates a convergence zone where brackish estuary water meets the open Atlantic, a marine ecotone that concentrates prey species and draws cetaceans within two nautical miles of shore. Commercial whale watching in Cape May began in 1993 when the first dedicated research vessels opened public berths, transforming what had been a seasonal sport-fishing economy into a year-round marine ecotourism hub. Today the South Jersey Marina at milepost 109 serves as the departure point for all cape may dolphin whale watching tours, with naturalist-guided cruises running seven days a week from 08:30 to sunset. The fleet includes both open-deck catamarans and climate-controlled cabin vessels, each equipped with hydrophones that broadcast dolphin echolocation clicks and humpback song through deck speakers. Summer sightings skew heavily toward bottlenose dolphins, which hunt in coordinated pods of twelve to twenty animals and are frequently observed strand-feeding along the tidal mudflats of Cape May Point. Whale encounters rise sharply in spring when humpbacks follow the menhaden run, breaching and tail-slapping in water shallow enough that their white pectoral fins catch sunlight just beyond the surf line. The coastal shelf drops to 60 feet within a half-mile of shore, and currents funnel plankton blooms into predictable feeding corridors that captains track by water color and bird activity. Cape may dolphin whale watching tickets now account for 40 percent of the region's May-through-September tourism revenue, and sighting logs compiled by onboard marine biologists contribute to the Mid-Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin Catalog, a photo-identification database maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The cruises operate under federal Marine Mammal Protection Act guidelines that require vessels to maintain 50-yard standoff distances, though dolphins routinely approach boats to bow-ride, and breaching humpbacks have surfaced within ten yards of stationary hulls during documented encounters.