On a quiet evening aboard his lobster boat, Matthew Melanson looked across the back deck and saw something that was not there yet.
The season had ended, the boat was cleaned up and shining, and for the next six months it would mostly sit tied up. For a working fisherman in Tiverton, Long Island, that felt like a waste. Then the picture came to him: people standing on that deck, cameras in hand, watching humpbacks rise from the Bay of Fundy.
“I just kind of pictured people on it,” Matthew recalls, “and doing tours and things like that.”
That moment became Adventure Bay Whale Watching Company.
Matthew had already had a taste of the industry before launching his own business. Years earlier, before COVID, he ran a Zodiac for another local whale watching operator. At the time, Matthew was also lobster fishing from a smaller boat. He had even considered buying the existing whale-watching operation, but when the pandemic arrived, “it just put a complete halt on everything.”
Later, after investing in a larger lobster boat so he could fish in more challenging weather, travel farther and carry more traps, the idea returned in a new form. “I thought it was a real shame to have that boat tied up for six months a year and not working,” he says.
With encouragement from another local operator and support at home, Matthew decided to make the leap. “We put our heads together and said, you know what? This is what we’re going to do, and we’re going to get this boat working all year round.”
To carry passengers, the boat needed a major refit to meet Transport Canada’s passenger code. That meant planning, projections, paperwork, financing and plenty of hands-on labour. Matthew brought the idea to CBDC Digby Clare, where he worked with Rose Madden and Rebecca LeBlanc.
“They loved the idea,” he says. “They thought, you know, this could really work.”
The process was not easy.
“It was a lot of work,” he says. “There were some hiccups along the way, but I put my head down and did it.”
Adventure Bay began running tours in July 2023 and is now in its fourth season. The company offers daily sailings at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., with trips typically lasting three to four hours. The boat can carry up to 45 passengers, and during busy stretches, especially in August, trips can fill to capacity.
Visitors come from everywhere: Europe, New Zealand, the United States, across Canada and, of course, Nova Scotia. Most find the company online, through Google, TripAdvisor or the company’s own website, while others spot the roadside signage around Digby County.
Once aboard, they are in the hands of a crew that knows both the water and the life around it. Matthew has an office staff member, three crew members on the boat, and an “amazing tour guide” named Linnea, a marine biologist who has been with him since the beginning.
“She lives and breathes it,” Matthew says. “She’s on every single trip, and people just love her. She is fantastic. She’s irreplaceable.”
For Matthew, the best part is not only seeing whales. It is seeing people see them.
“I’m a people person,” he says. “I enjoy meeting people. They come from all over the world, and it’s pretty interesting. Even now, to see people’s reactions, we’re creating memories that people will never forget.”
The Bay of Fundy delivers plenty of those moments. Humpbacks come north to feed, and by August, Matthew says, they are often full, active and playful. “We’ve had some amazing humpback whales feeding,” he says. “It’s really quite something to see.”
One trip this season ran longer than usual after the whales moved farther offshore. Matthew told passengers they would have to keep going if they wanted the best chance at a sighting. The round trip stretched to nearly 30 nautical miles, but they found what they were looking for: a group of five humpbacks.
“I told the people, listen, we’re going to go a little farther today,” he says. “I really want to show you a whale. And they loved it.”
Of course, nature makes no guarantees. Early in the season, when whales are still arriving, a few trips may come back without a sighting. Last year, Matthew ran about 120 trips and recalls only four where they did not see whales. Most people understand that these are wild animals, he says, and that unpredictability is part of the experience.
Still, some encounters are hard to forget. One of Matthew’s favourites happened when his oldest son, now 10, was aboard during one of his first trips. A humpback breached again and again, leaping completely out of the water.
“Twenty times in a row,” Matthew says.
Since then, he has called his son his “little good luck charm.”
That family connection is part of what Matthew hopes Adventure Bay can become. He has two boys and would love to see them involved someday, if they choose it. “I’d like to hand it down to them and just watch it keep going,” he says. “That’s kind of the goal, just to set them up that if they want to stay around this area, they won’t have to struggle in the same ways that I did.”
For now, Matthew is focused on steady growth, strong trips and a safe, thoughtful experience. He is careful about weather and sea conditions, especially because many guests are not used to the ocean.
“I kind of put myself in their shoes,” he says. “If I was a tourist with my kids, would I want to be out here in this? If it’s not suitable, we just cancel and rebook people for nicer days.”
That practical care, paired with the wonder of the Bay of Fundy, has helped Adventure Bay become more than a seasonal sideline. It is a working boat with a second life, a local business drawing visitors to Tiverton, and a place where strangers step aboard hoping to see a whale and return with a story.
For Matthew, that is still the reward.
“My favourite part would be after a good trip,” he says, “when I point the boat for home and tell people we’re headed home, and they just start cheering and clapping at the experience they’ve had.”