Best whale watching in Depoe Bay Oregon!

We run whale watching tours every day during our whale watching season. The season regularly goes from mid-December through October. Our whale watching season really is two section: migratory whale and resident whales. The migratory season starts in December and typically stretches out until mid May. Mid to late May is the point at which our "resident" whales start to show up. Our resident whales are a gathering of about 20 whales that, do relocate but don't go right to the Bering Sea yet rather feed throughout the mid year season inside only a couple miles of Depoe Bay and stay nearby until late October. Resident whales come back yearly and we can recognize returning whales by their individual markings and the captains even have them named.

Pacific Gray Whales have the longest migratory relocation of any creature on earth going from the Baja Peninsula, even into the Sea of Cortez, to the Bering Sea. Their movement permits calves to be brought into the world in the warm waters of the Baja tidal ponds, that is essential to the endurance of the babies since they have no protecting lard layer upon entering the world. As the new calves and their moms gradually relocate North the calves acquire around nine to ten pounds each day. What makes that much more amazing is the way that the cows (mother gray whales) don't feed very little if at all during the migration. This is frequently very apparent by the actual appearance of the cows when they arrive at Depoe Bay, they are in a real sense racks of skin and bones, having utilized their fat stores to help the calves during movement.

After they show up here eating is the first need. Pacific Gray Whales are baleen feeders, they channel food they need from the water by stressing it through their baleen plates. Life forms they feed on are tiny, one of the whales most significant food sources are Mysid Shrimp. Mysid Shrimp live in and around kelp forests and never get more than about a half inch long. They take after mosquito hatchling more than shrimp and the whales will burn-through as much as 2000 pounds of them daily. At different occasions they will benefit from copepods they filter by taking pieces of muck from the ocean floor or even skim feed on schools of exceptionally little fish.

Humpback and Blues whales are likewise seen once in a while however not as often as Gray Whales. We are lucky here in Depoe Bay to have whales close by for us to see for the vast majority of the year.

We run our Whale Watching trips from comfortable safe 50 foot Delta Charter boats. They are Coast Guard Certified and have everything needed for your security and piece of mind. They have every one of the conveniences: agreeable warmed cabins, rest rooms, indoor seating, seating out on the deck. You can walk right around the boats and are raised over the water for great whale sightings. Our captains have many years of experience and an abundance of information they share during the outings making them interpretive visits. Our boats approach ways to stroll on and off easily or give wheel chair access. We can oblige large gatherings.

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