Hi, I went with Aquatic Adventures two years ago. The trip was amazing. Aquatic Adventures was the first to go out to the Silverbanks. Personally I don't know how they compare with the other dive companies out there, but they were great. A couple in our tour went with another company the year previous, but didn't have great things to say. They decided to go with Aquatic Adventures and said they were way better.
They split us up into two groups in the morning and we headed out in tenders. I believe there was 10 of us in each boat. We would look for whales and when the conditions were right, we would jump in. They usually look for a sleeping mother and calf, but we got to experience a lot of different activity.
We would get pretty close. There was an accident a couple years ago with a different company (not sure which,) where someone got to close and accidentally bumped into a calf. The mother flipped her tail and shattered the guys leg. So they don't want you getting to close. The whale pretty much decides how close your going to get. There was one whale that kept coming so close, that several people got back on the tender.
In our group we had professional photographers, people with little point and shoot cameras, and people just watching the show.
We saw several whales each day. Some days had busy afternoons and quiet mornings and vice versa. Some whales we stayed with for an hour, and others took off as soon as we got in the water. But I was never disappointed in the amount of whales we saw.
It was on my bucket list also, and was worth every penny. The crew was awesome and very knowledgeable. The food was great, and boat was nice and clean. The encounters were incredible. We were watching a Mother, calf and male escort. The escort took of and a couple minutes, I looked behind to see he had snuck up behind us and was watching us. It was extremely unreal to have a huge animal like that sneak up behind you, to make sure your not a threat. We got to swim over singing males, and their song would vibrate your whole body. It was nothing I have ever experienced before. A whale that was "not quite right," showed just as much interest in us, as we did in it. So much, they had to call us back into the boat. But after some incredible close encounters.
Hope that helps.
