A minke whale expedition with Eye to Eye Marine Encounters leaves you with unforgettable memories. From the enthusiastic friendly crew, informative researchers, amazing food, spectacular dive sites and most of all the beautiful dwarf minke whales will have you coming back for more every year- its addictive! Spending hours in the water interacting with these very inquisitive and friendly whales is one of life’s most amazing wildlife experiences.

-Helen Robertson

JR was our skipper for the BBC series 'Great Barrier Reef', and lead a variety of boats to a myriad of filming locations all over the reef over a course of a year.
His knowledge of the reef; its wonders and pitfalls as well as his understanding of the complexities of filming expeditions put our camera teams in the very best locations at the best times. He was very much more than a skipper to us, his knowledge of the animals in particular made him a key member of the production team. Despite the considerable challenges of wildlife film making JR's ability to handle any conceivable situation in characteristic good humour meant our team always knew that they were in safe hands.

- James Brickell, British Broadcasting Coorporation (BBC)

For all professional photographers and film makers contemplating the prospect of documenting the dwarf minke whales, I highly recommend Eye to Eye Marine Encounters. John Rumney worked many late hours on my behalf to ensure I was with the minke whales for the entire season. This included finding boats to use under his permit and coordinating with other permit holders. No other company I've worked with has gone to these lengths and the results are evident in my photographs.

-Bryant Austin, Marine Mammal Conservation Through the Arts

In 2010 I did 3 trips with Eye to Eye. The first 2 were back to back dwarf minke trips, the first was wonderful but the second was almost unbelievable. I am used to working around whales with Fisheries and Oceans Cetacean Research Unit in British Columbia but these trips were at least the equal of anything I have experienced in Canada. We use the term whale soup when we encounter large groups of whales in BC but in the case of the second dwarf minke trip we were part of the soup with whales appearing from all sides and making approaches as close as 1 metre. I thought that couldn’t be equaled.......
In Nov/Dec 2010 I did a Far Northern trip with Eye to Eye. This trip in fact was every bit as good as the minke trips earlier in the year. It was full of adrenaline-filled dives and unforgettable animal encounters. Most amazing of all was watching 5 tiger sharks taking turns feeding on 2 turtle carcasses, the unfortunates that just made it back to the sea too late, only to die from heat exhaustion. This latter interaction built up over several hours as tiger sharks are quite timid in approaching most prey species. Fascinating to watch.
One warning for those thinking of booking with Eye to Eye. The food! It is so good that it is impossible to ignore. I thought I had good self discipline but that foolish belief is in ruins.
JR is a wonderful host, a first class mariner, an excellent naturalist. His bad points? He’s taller than me!

-Bruce Paterson