About Us

The Aggergaard family, owners of Island Adventures Whale Watching and Hawaiian Adventures Kona, have been running whale watch tours for over 25 years, and pride themselves in offering educational experiences to respectfully visit with whales in their natural habitat. Their adventure started in the San Juan Islands, a region of the Salish Sea known for its killer whale activity. For many years, orcas were the species predominantly seen whilst exploring these inland waters, but in recent years this trend has changed. As once-endangered populations of baleen whales, such as humpbacks, began to recover, they rediscovered the Salish Sea as productive summer feeding grounds. 

Today, over 500 individual humpbacks have been documented utilizing Salish Sea waters, a phenomenon referred to locally as “The Humpback Comeback”. What’s even more exciting, is that third-generation Salish Sea humpbacks have returned to these historic feeding grounds. The utilization of photo-identification to distinguish between whales has allowed the Aggergaard family, and their guests, to get to know these whales on an individual basis. It is this connection, and a desire to learn more about this incredible species, that brought them to Hawaii, the wintering location of many of the same humpbacks they’ve come to know so well. 

A third-generation whale watching family, the Aggergaard’s have built a reputation for running professional, high-quality wildlife tours. They understand that there is an art to running well-rounded, fun, and memorable trips, and it is their dedication to their craft that has set them apart. They also understand that as professional whale watching operators, they are in a unique position to be the “eyes-on-the-water” for researchers, collecting data that might otherwise be lost. Utilizing professional-grade cameras, photo identification guides, and SPOT transmitters, each whale encounter is meticulously documented for later use by cetacean researchers. 

Hawaiian Adventures Kona understands that first-hand experiences are key to cultivating connections between communities and wildlife. We hope that our tours can inspire this respect for marine life in those visiting Hawaii, a respect that the Kona community embodies. We are excited to be a part of a community that understands the health of our oceans is tantamount to our own well-being, and play our part to promote this mindset. Come join us on the water, and experience the connection with the whales that has inspired our family for the past 25 years.