Bruce Mate and Denise Herzing from the Hatfield Marine Science Center were counting Gray whales migrating past Yaquina Head Lighthouse in 1978, when Don Giles, also of the Science Center, headed out to the lighthouse with his binoculars and a great idea. He realized that Gray whales migrate past the Oregon coast during two special times of the year.

The southbound migration peaks just around the winter holiday season and the northbound migration has one of its two peaks near the end of March during spring break. This created the best possible match of whales and visitors!  

By Dave Masko for the Eugene Examiner

... recent sighting of a pod of killer whales swimming in and around Florence and Newport along the central Oregon coast and just an hour's drive from Eugene, has started a new whale watching craze here.

There are about 200-400 gray whales that do not go as far north as Alaska to feed in the summer. We generally have feeding whales on the central coast from July through October. These whales are very close to shore while feeding and can often be seen from many of the same locations as any other time of year. (See Map Below).

Gray whales can be seen year-round on the Oregon Coast.

Got a few pictures before my batteries died... darn!

A mother gray whale and calf were seen Sunday (May 16, 2010) near Neahkahnie Mountain on the Oregon Coast.

Read Oregonian Article by Lorie Tobias

The middle of April is Orca season from Cascade Head all the way down to Florence. According to Morris Grover, with the Whale Watch Spoken Here program, there may be more than usual this 2010 spring season and they are here earlier than usual.

These Orcas are more shark-like than the "friendly whales," from the San Juan Islands that eat only salmon. These killer whales are called "transient" whales, meaning officials don't know where they come from. They live off of seals and baby Gray whales. Grover said that we always have them during Whale Watch, but this is four or five times more than normal.

by Grant McOmie for KGW

Some people go the extra mile to teach you more about Oregon's wildlife legacy.

John Driscoll - The Times-Standard

In nearly a quarter century studying humpback whales, researcher Fred Sharpe has witnessed a remarkable recovery.

The intelligent and social animals have rebounded from centuries of whaling, and are filling in their historic range. Sharpe, a founder of the Alaska Whale Foundation, said the whales have even made a comeback along the California and Oregon coasts, where as recently as the early 1960s some 2,000 humpbacks were killed.

A whale here, a whale there whales whales everywhere.-Whale watchers on the Oregon Coast reported the biggest migration spotted in five years so far during the last week of 2009.

About 18,000 gray whales and 1,100 humpbacks are in the middle of an annual migration to the Baja coast for breeding.

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