Winter Whale Watch Week is canceled once again on Oregon coast
Whale watchers on the Oregon coast will once again be on their own this year as the 2021 winter Whale Watch Week event has been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department announced.
This marks the fourth straight cancellation for Whale Watch Week events, which first canceled during the spring gray whale migration in March 2020. The popular Whale Watching Center in Depoe Bay, typically the hub of all whale watching events, remains closed to the public.
Typically, park rangers and volunteers are staged at 24 designated whale watching locations along the Oregon coast, educating visitors about the gray whale migration and helping people spot them out in the ocean. Without their assistance, whale watching will continue to be a do-it-yourself experience at coastal state parks.
The parks department once again did not give dates for this year’s DIY version of Winter Whale Watch Week, but the event typically runs from Dec. 27 to 31, when some 20,000 gray whales are expected to pass by Oregon on their way south to warmer breeding grounds near Baja, Mexico. The gray whales will pass again in late March, as they head north to feeding grounds off the shore of Alaska.
During the winter and spring migrations, gray whales can be seen from shore at popular whale watching destinations like Cape Meares near Tillamook, Boiler Bay in Depoe Bay and Shore Acres west of Coos Bay.
Those who want a closer look can book a spot on one of several whale watching tours, most of which launch out of Depoe Bay. Whale watching outfitters are operating this winter, with public health protocols in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Those who opt to stay on land may need to bring a little patience to spot a gray whale in the open ocean. To find a whale, use a pair of binoculars and scan the ocean slowly, looking for the whale’s spout, which will appear as a vertical spray of mist. You can also look for a tail, called a fluke, which sometimes emerges from the water as the whale dives. If you’re really lucky, you might see the whale jump out of the water – a behavior known as breaching – though gray whales do so less frequently than some other species, like humpbacks.
Not every trip to the coast will guarantee a sighting, but the experience of seeing the huge, graceful animals in the open ocean is unforgettable.
Visiting the Oregon coast in the winter requires some additional precautions, especially when weather is stormy or the tide is high. In general, you can follow the same safety guidelines for storm watching – avoid jetties, rocky shorelines and precarious places – though hopefully the seas will be calmer as you search for spouts of traveling whales.