How can you not find a whale? Do you know how big they are? Can be some sort of a typical question when you are taking people from the public out onto the ocean for their first time in search of whales. Honestly, it use to annoy me when I had to answer this type of question multiple times a day. However, I look at that question now as an opportunity to discuss the actual reality of the natural world.
One little trick that I use and use to help get people to relate to finding and tracking whales is looking for a footprint. A foot print left by a whale is a circle of flat water/smooth water. If you are lucky enough, you can see these circles of smooth water starting to form in front of your eyes, which is pretty cool. Also, gives you the idea that under the surface there is a whale swimming, which way it is swimming is the $64,000 question. Keep searching looking for another footprint forming and that second footprint will give you an idea of direction and even the speed at which the animal could be moving at. Not sure what a footprint looks like? Somewhat like the smooth pars of the water in the photo below.
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Another thing some of us use, it looking for the tell-tale bubbles in a circle, w/diving birds in the area. This will usually mean Whales are bubble net feeding. The birds are merely there to catch a lucky fish or two that escapes!
I tell passengers on my boat, look at the horizon, and now, let your eyes drift slightly below the horizon. Look for a puff of mist.... that may be a whale, blowing air to clear water from their breathing hole.
My kids, when they were much younger, called this looking for the 'sprout'