Skip to main content
Need something to do between Christmas and New Year’s Eve? Good news: Beyoncé’s favorite animal is migrating down the Pacific Coast, creating a sight to see for anyone willing to bundle up and soak in the beauty.
Whales—gray whales to be exact—are leaving the Arctic waters they prefer in the summer for warmer water off California’s coastline, where they like to spend the winter months. They’ll be visible from Oregon shores. Oregon State Parks volunteers at 14 locations along the Oregon Coast—including the Depoe Bay Whale Watching Center, the Heceta Head Lighthouse near Florence, and Face Rock State Scenic Viewpoint in Coos County—will be onsite between 10 am and 1 pm Dec. 27–31 to help visitors spot the water spouts that signal where to look for the aquababes in action. OSP personnel advise that visitors bring binoculars and plenty of warm, waterproof clothing: This is the Oregon Coast in winter, after all.
In its Instagram video, OSP tries to make a case for seeing the rest of the Oregon Coast’s scenery and wildlife, shouting out eagles and seals—the latter of which sometimes get trapped inland after major storms, as happened with a 50-pound sea lion pup over the weekend (as OPB reported) and a 600-pound adult in rural Washington (as we reported in 2020). But the gray whales are admittedly the main attraction this week.
“The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced an end to an Unusual Mortality Event impacting gray whales in 2023 when it looked like the population was rebounding,” parks spokesman Mike Baden wrote in a statement. “But since then, the population has declined to its lowest level since the 1970s. NOAA now estimates about 13,000 gray whales along the West Coast.”
As they do get close to shore, hopefully none wind up like the baby humpback whale whose tragic beaching near Yachats had Oregonians panic-refreshing their phones in November. (That whale was euthanized; park staff, veterinary medicine students and members of the Siletz tribe worked to disassemble it, in a real show of growth for Oregonians, who, um, haven’t always disposed of our beached whales appropriately.)
Though gray whales aren’t endangered like humpbacks, it’s best not to mess with them while they travel in search of food. Now, I don’t actually know how you could mess with whales, but we may very well have driven off the Chapman Elementary School roost of Vaux’s swifts with our drone-wielding dumbassery, so don’t get any ideas.
