March 15, 2024 3:50 a.m. 

Oregon State Parks will host Spring Whale Watch Week along the Oregon coast on Saturday March 23rd through Sunday March 31st.

An OPRD release said trained volunteers will be stationed at 15 sites along the coast to help visitors spot whales and their calves and answer questions daily from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The sites are some of the best places to watch for the whales on the Oregon coast.

The spring event is three days longer than last year and might include better odds of seeing gray whales on their journey home from calving lagoons in Mexico in light of Thursday’s announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

NOAA announced the end of an Unusual Mortality Event, a significant die-off of the gray whale population, that had affected the marine mammals since 2019.

NOAA Fisheries Public Affairs Officer Michael Milstein said, “The latest counts indicate that the gray whale population has likely turned the corner and is beginning to recover. It’s a perfect time for people to see them as they swim north with new calves to feed”.

Researchers counted about 412 calves last year, which was almost double the number from the year before. That helped signal an end to the Unusual Mortality Event and a likely turnaround in numbers as the species begins to rebound.

An estimated 14,500 gray whales are expected to swim past Oregon’s shores from late winter through June as part of their annual migration back to Alaska.

The Whale Watching Center in Depoe Bay will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. during spring break. Visitors can enjoy interactive whale exhibits and take in the panoramic ocean views. Binoculars are provided. Rangers from Oregon State Parks will also be on hand to answer questions about the whales.

A map of the volunteer-staffed sites is available online on the official event webpage: https://oregonstateparks.org/index.cfm?do=thingstodo.dsp_whaleWatching