Whale Watching in Depoe Bay. Best in Oregon
Whale Watching Report:
01/01/2026
The whale watching right now is terrific with lots of migrating whales going by and some great trips aboard the Dockside boats. You have a choice of either one or two hour trips and a suggestion would be to opt for the 2-hour trips because sometimes the migrating whales are further offshore.
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Depoe Bay is the Whale Watching Capital and Dockside Charters offers Premier Whale Watching Excursions.
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Oregon Coast Whale Watching Tours!
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.
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Archived Whale Watching Reports:
12/30/2025
Happy New Year to all of our past and future customers from the skippers and staff at Dockside Charters. Have a great 2026.
12/28/2025
Good whale watching today and should be good for the next 3-4 days as the ocean weather should be good thru that period. The northerly migration is underway thru the waters off of Depoe Bay.
12/24/2025
We will be running fishing and crabbing trips from Saturday through next week and 2 hour and 1 hour whale watching trips throughout the day for the Grey whale migration
12/24/2025
The skippers and staff at Dockside Charters want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and holiday season.
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12/21/2025
Looks like our next trip is Christmas Eve for you whale watch folks. Keep in touch with our office for more information as we get closer. The worst of the weather with the rain, wind and flooding activity seems to be over so we are day to day this next week.
12/19/2025
As soon as the ocean weather clears up we will be running whale watch trips as the northerly migration of the Gray whales is underway. The whales will be moving by the Depoe Bay Area well into January and beyond so as soon as the weather clears up we will get going. Right now the power is off because of the wind and rain in the Depoe Bay Area so we will be calling you back as soon as things get back to normal in the area. Though the computers and phones are off right now you can still book online and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
12/02/2025
The northerly migration of the Gray whales is only historically about 2-3 weeks away. We will let you know when we see the first pods of whales going by Depoe Bay. Normally it\'s sometime between a week or so before Christmas and the 1st of the year. Get ready to come down and see this yearly event.
11/27/2025
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Dockside Charters
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11/16/2025
One would think by past years that this would be a slower time for whale watching but on Saturday we had really good sightings that meaning possibly the whales are back in the area early.
11/03/2025
We did get out on a fishing trip a few days back but then the weather went back to not being so nice in the afternoon. We are really in a bad weather pattern as it was several weeks before we got out on the one trip last week and the forecast for the next week or so does not look very nice but we are looking for some decent days to get out on the whale watch tours. However the weather does change so stay in touch with our office for any weather updates and trips we are planning.
10/20/2025
The ocean weather sounds very questionable for the next 7-10 days Heavy swells and some windy days in the extended forecast. Much to rough to schedule trips. It will get better so keep in touch with our office as they know exactly what to expect. It is the oncoming of winter.
10/15/2025
The ocean weather forecast for the next two days (Thursday and Friday) looks really nice so it would be a good time to get on a whale watch excursion. Things by the forecast are looking a little iffy for the weekend
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10/09/2025
Have not been updating the whale watch information as things have pretty much stayed the same for months now. The Gray whales usually take off sometimes towards the end of October to go down to the Mexican breeding and birth grounds. The whale watching is still really great with quite a few of the resident whales still in the area. If this picture goes thru this is a Rizzo dolphin which was in the area with the pod a few days ago. \r\n
10/01/2025
The ocean weather is looking much better Friday thru the weekend. Might be a good time to come down and go out with Dockside on a whale watch adventure.
09/29/2025
We are dealing with rough ocean conditions possibly thru Thursday and looking towards Friday into the weekend when we will get back out there. Give our office a call for more weather updates. The whale watching has been great pretty much all the way thru the summer and we still are looking at a few more good weeks.
09/18/2025
No whale watching boats going out today (Thursday) because of rough ocean conditions. Hopefully will be back running trips tomorrow (Fridays).
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09/15/2025
Still a bunch whales out there but not a lot of time left as the weather is slowly turning so you will have to pick a good day. Also we are within 30 days or so that they will be leaving the area for the most part to make the southern journey down to the Mexican waters for the winter.
09/11/2025
Still almost halfway thru September there are sill plenty of performing Gray whales just outside the Depoe Bay channel and also some north and south of Depoe Bay. Great sightings and worth the ride down here to check them out.
09/03/2025
Still lots of whales in the area every day and on a good day there can be more then 10 Gray whales real close to the harbor entrance feeding in the kelp beds. It\'s a great time to come down to Dockside Charters and watch the whale shows.
08/28/2025
Lots of whales in the area as one day this week we had up to 10-11 whales feeding in the area very close to the Depoe Bay entrance. A great timer to come down and see the resident whales spout and possibly breach as you are out there. Lots of opportunities every day as we run normally around 10am thru the afternoon hours.
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08/14/2025
It was a very special day out on the ocean waters watching whales as we had at least 12+ whales around our area today. One of the whale watch skippers commented that wherever he went he had 3-4 whales around sometimes right next to the boat. the whales at least some were literally standing on there heads feeding on the shallow waters where the kelp beds haver been growing very quickly in the past few weeks. They stand on their heads while they are feeding and there flukes were on top of the water at the surface. Quite the day.....
08/05/2025
As it has been for the past 3-4 weeks the whale watching has been terrific this summer as we have been seeing the majority of them are Gray whales. We have been also seeing Blue whales and Humpbacks occasionally. We also see an occasionally Orca whale.
07/27/2025
With the summer in full swing the whale watching has been great with quite a few Gray whales in the area and the occasional Humpback whale swimming by the area. We have also half three occasions to find Blue whales in the vicinity.
07/23/2025
Whale watching out of Dockside this afternoon was once again quite special as we spotted another Blue whale about 4-5 miles offshore and our guys ran out there to take a look & here is one of the pictures of the whale with the Samson in the background.
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07/06/2025
The whale watching continues to be really good with multiple whales in the area today and it was really good sightings and a little luck was involved as well. The whales were right out in front of the city and the ones we were watching were inside the north and south points outside of the harbor. That was really a good thing because it was quite windy this afternoon but inside those point the ocean was much better as it cut off the winds out of the north.
07/02/2025
The feeding Gray whales are pretty close as they are right outside the harbor entrance feeding in the kelp beds. The Dockside whale watchers had a great day and the entire trip they were watching whales.
06/28/2025
Not only did we see Gray whales today (Saturday) but we also saw Humpback whales ad the report was up to 6+ Blue whales. It was a day that might not be repeated in years to come.
06/28/2025
W have had great whale sightings all day today with the Gray whales& we even have had fantastic sighting of a Blue whale which is. making a rare appearance to the area out in front of Depoe Bay. These whales are the largest animal on the earth getting as long as 100 feet and weighing up to 200 tons. They put out a very large spout There are estimated up to 10,000 to 25,000 of the great Blue whales left in the oceans globally wide.
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06/23/2025
Whales both north and south of the harbor entrance as Dockside boats were out watching the whales as they were feeding in the kelp beds. Quite a few of the resident whales are in the area the same ones that we see most every year with a few new ones from time to time.
06/22/2025
The Depoe Bay bar crossing was quite rough overnight into the early morning hours but as of 9am things were very much improved so hope to see you down here for some Sunday whale watching. The ocean weather looks good all the way thru the 1st of July.
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