Kerama humpback whale season

Humpbacks spend the summer feeding in cold water off Russia and Alaska, then swim thousands of kilometres south each winter to breed and raise their calves in warm seas like Okinawa's. The Zamami Whale Watching Association says they arrive around December, and many females come back here to give birth after a pregnancy of about a year. The Churashima Foundation has photographed and identified about 2,000 individual whales around the Keramas and the Motobu Peninsula (its 2024 count) over more than 30 years of surveys. Pairs and rowdy groups of three or more show up most from late January to late February, which the foundation reads as the height of mating.

Zamami's member boats run morning and afternoon trips from the port, and a trip takes about one to two hours. For 2026 the association listed ¥7,700 for adults and ¥3,850 for children, with a separate ¥600 whale-search fee that goes to protection and research, and it notes that each boat can set its own price. Boats slow down inside 300 m of a whale and keep out of 100 m unless the whale comes to them. A mother and calf get one hour of watching in the morning and one in the afternoon across the whole fleet, so a trip that finds only a mother and calf can come back after about an hour.

Sea conditions decide the sailing days, and the association suggests booking by the day before. Boats from Naha sail too: OCVB's calendar lists whale watching from Mie Castle Port in Naha between 19 December 2026 and 4 April 2027, and OCVB singles out the Kerama area for its high sighting rate.