Whale watching cruises in Texas do not, strictly speaking, exist, or if they do exist they resist being found. This is perhaps surprising given that so much of Texas borders on the ocean, or more precisely the Gulf of Mexico, and also that there are seemingly a lot of decent departure points for whale watching cruises from Texas’ coastal towns and cities. There are, however, some cruises that somewhat resemble whale watching cruises, and in fact these are exactly what come up with when you hunt for whale watching cruises in Texas, which is precisely what we’ve been trying to do this afternoon. Below we explain these offerings and explore why there don’t seem to be any whale watching cruises in Texas.
It might seem strange to write an article about the lack of something – to write about the whales that can’t be seen from cruises that don’t depart from Texas. It is like writing a review of restaurant in which you report that the establishment under consideration has the peculiar feature of nonexistence. However, we have two responses to those who might question the need for this article. First, it is actually quite helpful to know that certain things aren’t possible. If there are people out there searching for whale watching cruises in Texas, as there almost certainly are, then isn’t it helpful to know that you are on a wild goose chase? To extend the earlier metaphor, imagine if you (for whatever strange reason) were searching for a particular restaurant that didn’t exist. Wouldn’t you want to know this information as soon as possible? Second, there are, as we said, cruises that are kind of like whale watching cruises, and to these we now turn our attention.
The cruises that are like whale watching cruises are simply boating tours that focus on seeing other marine life; in the case of Texas, virtually all of these cruises focus on dolphins, although some are advertised as larger “ecology tours.” If you are interested is going on a whale watching cruise from Texas, one of these eco tours or dolphin watching cruises might serve as a suitable replacement. None of the companies we looked at specifically mention the prospect of seeing whales, but it does seem possible that a whale could be spotted. There are, after all, whales in the Gulf of Mexico. However, these whales are evidently hard to see, and the situation is nothing like the whale watching scene in places like California or the San Juan Islands. There is a website that is designed to track global whale sightings, and although it seemingly hasn’t been updated in the last few years, you can still see that no whales were reported as being spotted in the Gulf of Mexico. Presumably, the situation hasn’t changed since when the site was last updated.
So, if you are looking for a whale watching cruise that departs from Texas, you will be disappointed in the cruise’s non-being. However, at least you now know that the cruises aren’t out there to be found, and there are also other cruises that focus on seeing marine life, and one of these might be of interest to you as well.
