In April 2010, we snorkeled with the North Atlantic Humpbacks and their newborn calves in the Silver Bank area, north of the Dominican Republic - and half way to the Turks & Caicos. We chose the T&C Aggressor for our charter, but Conscious Breath Adventures was there (on the Dancer Fleet yacht, I think) the same week. Or maybe it was the Explorer Adventures yacht. Anyway, only two yachts that week on the Silver Bank.
You really do get to snorkel (not dive) on the surface above the whales. The mothers are down at about 60 ft, and the calves go up and down, surfacing three times as often as the mothers. These are called soft encounters. There is no free diving allowed, no touching, chasing or approaching the whales, and the entire group of snorkelers must stay together in the water ie: you must stay in a line, next to each other the entire time you are in the water. When not in the water with a whale, you are in a dingy (panga) for four hours every morning and four hours every afternoon, looking for whales to "encounter" with.
It was a pretty cool experience. Our first in water encounter lasted about 30 mins, with the baby surfacing and swimming past our group, probably about twenty feet in front of us. At the end of that first encounter the mother came up from sixty feet and swam directly underneath our group of five snorkelers, at about ten feet below us. It was pretty spectacular. During the week we had several in water encounters, some lasting only thirty minutes and some lasting an hour. Sometimes the calves would come very close to us, other times not so much.
Just know this: During the five days you are out on the Silver Bank, you will spend approximately 40 hours in the panga, looking for whales and their calves. During our week, we spent between 8 and 10 hours total, in the water snorkeling with them. It is a very long day on the water, in a very small boat, with the driver, the in water guide, and 6 to 9 other snorkelers. If there are any "unusual personalities" in your panga, it makes for a long, long day.
The bonus on this adventure: You will end up with some of the most amazing u/w photos. Even I did, and I only take a small Canon Elph Point & Shoot. These u/w whale shots will be the memories of a lifetime for you.:cool2:
I don't guess it was possible to get a USCG chopper to pick him up in DR waters, but I got to wonder why he didn't get DAN to fly him to Miami for the surgery? DAN membership includes Travelers Assist medical evac arranged thru them, plus his Dive Insurance would cover the accident. See 
