Depoe Bay Whale Watching
Whale Watching Report:
04/15/2023
Spring weather will hit us again tomorrow and not the good kind. We will keep you informed on the ocean weather daily and we can tell you that later next week thru the weekend sounds like the GOOD kind of spring weather.
04/15/2023
Spotty whale watching this afternoon with the wind and ocean chop came up late in the morning and made whale watching difficult. When the wind blows it takes away the whale spouts which of course is how we find the whales to get close to them to see them better. The word from the fleet is that some of the boats saw one whale and others did not.
04/14/2023
No official word from the powers to be at Dockside this evening but in driving by the coastline today we saw some rubber inflatable boats all bunched together a little north of town watching something? It\'s safe to assume they were watching whales.
04/13/2023
Good whale watching this afternoon with what looks like some of the resident whales are here already. Most of the time the migrating whales are a little further offshore and the resident whales are in real close to the shoreline where they begin their feeding routine. The whales we were watching today were just south of the harbor about a quarter mile and only about a football field off the rocky coastline.
04/10/2023
Good Morning Monday folks. We are presently going thru the new weather buzzword known as a \"Atmospheric River\". It\'s been rainy since Friday evening and still is coming down quite hard. All or most should be out of here by Wednesday and we are looking at some really nice weather starting Thursday at least thru the weekend. There is even some sun in the forecast. We will be back in action on Thursday so give us a call for some great whale watching.
Depoe Bay Whale Watching Report Archive...
Depoe Bay is the Whale Watching Capital and Dockside Charters offers Premier Whale Watching Excursions.
Dockside Charters runs whale watching excursions on a daily basis during our whale watching season. The season typically goes from mid-December through October. Our whale watching season actually is two part: migration and residential. The migratory season begins in December and usually extends until mid May. Mid to late May is when our “resident” whales begin to arrive. Our resident whales are a group of roughly 20 whales that, though they do migrate don’t go all the way to the Bering Sea but rather feed during the summer season within just a few miles of Depoe Bay and stay in the area until late October. The same whales return year after year and we are able to identify returning whales by their individual markings and the skippers even have them named.
Pacific Gray Whales have the longest migration of any animal on earth going from the Bering Sea to the Baja Peninsula and even into the Sea of Cortez. Their migration allows calves to be born in the warm waters of the Baja lagoons, that is vital to the survival of the newborns because they have no insulating blubber layer at birth. As the new calves and their mothers slowly migrate North the calves gain about nine to ten pounds per day. What makes that even more remarkable is the fact that the cows (mother gray whales) feed very little if at all during the migration. This is often quite evident by the physical appearance of the cows when they reach Depoe Bay, they are literally racks of skin and bones, having used their fat reserves to support the calves during migration.
After they arrive here feeding is the priority. Pacific Gray Whales are baleen feeders, they filter food they need from the water by straining it through their baleen plates. Organisms they feed on are quite small, one of the whales most important food sources are Mysid Shrimp. Mysid Shrimp live in and around kelp forests and never get more than about a half inch in length. They resemble mosquito larva more than shrimp and the whales will consume up to 2000 pounds of them a day. At other times they will feed on copepods they filter by taking mouthfuls of muck from the bottom or even skim feed on schools of very small fish.
Humpback and Blues whales are also seen occasionally though not as frequently as Gray Whales. We are fortunate here in Depoe Bay to have whales nearby for us to see for most of the year.
At Dockside Charters we run our Whale Watching excursions from safe comfortable 50 foot Delta Charter boats. They are Coast Guard Certified and have everything required for your safety and piece of mind. They have all the amenities: comfortable heated cabins, rest rooms, indoor seating, seating out on deck. You are able to walk all the way around the boats and are elevated above the water for excellent whale sightings. Our captains have decades of experience and a wealth of knowledge they share during the excursions making them interpretive tours. Our boats have access doors to walk on and off with ease or provide wheel chair access. We can accommodate large groups.
Reservations are recommended for our whale watching tours, to make yours call 541-765-2545
Whale watching excursions seven days a week, subject to marine conditions.
Whale watching report archive...
(541) 765-2545
