The tiki boat emerged in South Florida in the 1980s as floating thatched-roof lounges, and by 2015 the concept had reached the mid-Atlantic barrier islands. Cape May's harbor, sheltered by a mile-long stone jetty built in 1911, proved ideal for the low-draft pontoon platforms that carry up to twelve passengers beneath synthetic palm fronds. The boats operate from a Route 109 marina originally dredged for commercial fishing vessels, now converted to recreational charter slips. Cape May sits at the southern terminus of the Garden State Parkway, where Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean, creating a brackish confluence that draws bottlenose dolphins year-round and migrating humpback whales between November and March. Cape May tiki boat tours depart from a working harbor that still serves Coast Guard cutters and commercial crabbers. The vessels navigate waters charted by Henry Hudson in 1609 and later fortified during World War Two, when concrete observation towers rose along the beachfront to watch for German U-boats. Today's cruises follow the Cape May Canal, completed in 1942 to connect the bay with the ocean, allowing naval patrols to avoid the exposed cape during wartime. The canal remains an active shipping channel marked by red and green buoys that tiki boats pass at regulated distances. Dolphin sightings occur on approximately seventy percent of harbor tours, with pods of three to eight animals feeding near the jetty pilings where tide currents concentrate baitfish. The mammals surface every two to three minutes, exhaling through blowholes visible at twenty meters. Sunset departures time their return to coincide with the evening light that turns the Victorian-era beachfront architecture into silhouette. The boats carry no alcohol license, but passengers may bring coolers aboard within Coast Guard container limits. Winter whale-watching cruises extend to ninety minutes and venture three miles offshore, where humpbacks breach while migrating south to Caribbean breeding grounds. Water temperature drops to four degrees Celsius in January, requiring enclosed cabin space that standard tiki platforms lack, so whale tours operate from heated cabin cruisers under the same charter company.