There's a whale of a show going on in the waters off Florida's East Coast, and Capt. Glenn Cameron had a front-row seat New Year's Day.

Cameron and two clients aboard his charter boat The Floridian saw a 30-foot humpback whale about 11 a.m. Tuesday about 3 miles to 4 miles off Hobe Sound Beach.

"Oh my God, it was gigantic," Cameron told TCPalm Thursday. "It was a wonderful sight — must have breached six to eight times. I could tell by the way it breached that it was a humpback."

More: Whale shark visits anglers on Fort Pierce charter boat

More sightings of humpbacks and North Atlantic right whales should be expected along the Treasure Coast and Space Coast from now until early March as the massive marine mammals migrate from feeding grounds off New England to calving grounds in the Caribbean Sea.

"We usually get six to eight reported whale sightings a year along the Treasure Coast," said Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart. "We pass the information along to several groups doing whale research."

More:Anglers spot humpback whale off Fort Pierce in March 2018

Close to shore

You don't have to be miles offshore to see the whales.

On their way to the Caribbean, the whales take advantage of a nearshore current flowing south, counter to the northbound Gulf Stream.

"I've seen humpbacks literally less than 100 feet off the (Gilbert's Bar) House of Refuge," Perry said, referring to the Martin County landmark on southern Hutchinson Island. "Seeing them 100 yards offshore is not unusual."

When the whales head back north in April and May, they ride the Gulf Stream, so they're farther offshore.

Still endangered

Both right whales and humpback whales were hunted nearly to extinction in the days before kerosene, when whale oil was burned in lamps.

Whalers especially sought out right whales for their rich oil content, dubbing them the "right" whales to hunt. The whales swim slowly and close to shore.

Early American Indians on the Treasure Coast reportedly hunted them by jumping on their backs and driving plugs into the blow holes.

Both right whales and humpback whales are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Their biggest threats include collisions with ships and entanglement in commercial fishing gear.

Federal law requires people keep at least 500 yards from the whales.

"It's a safety measure, too," Perry said. "When they breach or even flap a fluke (fan-shaped tails), they can do some damage."

The right whale population rose slightly in the late 20th century, but since 2010 has dipped from about 500 in 2010 to an estimated 400, according to Smithsonian.com.

Humpback whales are doing better, with a population of between 30,000 and 40,000 worldwide, according to the American Cetacean Society.

'Always a pleasure'

"I've seen plenty of whales, especially up North," said Cameron, a fishing guide along the Treasure Coast for over 30 years. "But it's always a pleasure to see them here."

It was a bigger thrill for his South Carolinian clients.

"We were seeing a lot of sea turtles, and they liked that," Cameron said. "Then, when we saw the whale, yeah, they were really impressed."

Thar she blows!

Here's how to determine whether the gigantic marine mammal you see breaching off Florida's East Coast is a right whale or a humpback whale:

Humpback whales

Have small dorsal fins on their backs

Have long pectoral fins on their sides

Often spout V-shaped plumes of water out their blow holes

Adults are 45-50 feet long

Right whales

Have no dorsal fins on their backs

Have short pectoral fins on their sides

Spout straight-up plumes of water out their blow holes

Adults are 35-60 feet long

Report whale sightings ASAP