From December to April, the waters around Cabo San Lucas are visited by grey whales and humpback whales in substantial numbers. Grey whales pass through on their annual migration between their Arctic feeding grounds and the warm-water lagoons of Baja California Sur — the Magdalena Bay lagoons to the north are their breeding and calving destination, and Cabo is on their route. Humpbacks are more commonly seen in the open water off the cape, often breaching and tail-slapping.
Whale-watching tours run daily from the marina throughout the season, typically two to three hours in small pangas or larger catamarans. Humpbacks are reliable from January onwards and can be found year after year in the same feeding areas. The tours respect minimum approach distances, but in practice the whales often approach the boats. December is the best month for overall numbers; January and February are the peak for humpback behaviour. Even a modest tour on an unremarkable morning will usually find something: the convergence of the two oceans makes these among the most productive cetacean waters on the Pacific coast of North America.