Kayaking & Whale "Watching"

As a Maine outfitter, I get frequent inquiries about kayak tours that provide opportunity to see whales. The association of kayaking and whale watching apparently comes from the west coast. To my knowledge there are no places on the East Coast where you can consistently or predictably sight whales from a kayak. I did cross paths with a Finback whale in Maine’s Muscongus Bay one August morning several years ago, but — to date — that has been, in thousands of miles of paddling, my sole encounter with a whale.

I find it interesting to speculate on close encounters with whales from a kayak and am thus interested in a Paddling.net thread on the topic