DEPOE BAY, Ore. — Captain Ahab may not be the one looking through the binoculars, but from the excitement evinced, the coastal travelers in Depoe Bay are searching for a Moby-Dick sighting of their own.
In this case, the Moby-Dick in question is a gray, crustacean-consuming hulk of a whale, and he’s followed by upwards of 18,000 lookalikes.
Early Wednesday afternoon, experienced locals, coastal tourists and Ishmaels of the Pacific Northwest peered through several pairs of binoculars provided by the Depoe Bay Whale Watching Center. They were out to catch a glimpse of the not-so-elusive gray whales making their way down the Oregon Coast on a yearly sojourn from the icy waters of Alaska to the milder climate of Baja, Mexico.
The sightings coincided with the Pacific Northwest Whale Watching Week, which runs through Thursday.
Throughout the week, several hundred volunteers have been helping at 26 sites on the Oregon Coast, providing visitors with informational tidbits and guidance to spotting the whales.
Oregon State Parks has more than 300 volunteers trained for the task. Each day of the week, an estimated 100 volunteers have been staffed along the coast. The sites include Ecola State Park near Cannon Beach, Cape Kiwanda, Yaquina Head Lighthouse, the Sea Lions Caves, Umpqua Lighthouse State Park and Battle Rock Park in Port Orford.
The center in Depoe Bay opened at 10 a.m. Wednesday, and by 11:30 a.m. there were already 11 sightings of the whales. That development was encouraging to Scott Nelson, a longtime state parks coastal volunteer.
Nelson, who volunteered at the Depoe Bay for this year’s return migration in the spring, was helping to staff the site again during the whales’ southward journey.
“Yesterday, one of our sites had 33 whale sightings,” Nelson said.
According to Nelson, most of the barnacled baleen whales spotted have been males, as most of the females already have made their way to the warm waters of Baja.
The weather on the coast Wednesday was sunny, mild and noticeably absent of fog in the morning and early afternoon, which made it prime whale-viewing conditions.
That, combined with the ideal location of Depoe Bay, made the area a hotbed for tourists throughout the day. Hundreds of visitors parked at coastal view areas and took out pairs of binoculars to search high and low for the elusive beasts of the sea.
Information in the Whale Watching Center traced back the rich history of Depoe Bay, named after Joshua tribal leader Charlie DePoe.
Depoe Bay, nicknamed by the Whale Watching Center as “The Little Harbor That Could,” is known for having the “smallest natural navigable harbor in the world.”
The refuge was enlarged with the help of dredges, eventually growing to its current size. The town and Highway 101 skirt border a sea wall, with a view of the ocean.
Within the Whale Watching Center, staff members set up a live video feed showing views of the sea just outside of the harbor. Visitors had some of the best viewing successes there.
In the space of half an hour, some of the views picked up outside the harbor showed one whale “spyhopping,” or lifting its head above the surface of the water, as well as a whale fluking — which happens when one of the gray whales flips its tail high out of the water.
But the sighting that drew the most attention was one that has been commonly misrepresented — a gray whale blowing.
After gray whales dive underwater for up to five minutes, they breathe three to five times at the surface to replenish oxygen. But while the blow is well-known, its cause is less so — it’s a high-pressure gust of air, not water, which creates a spout when met with cold air.
One of the sightseers most eager to view the gray whales was visitor Janet Purcell, a proud “novice explorer of Oregon.”
Although Purcell, a native of Idaho, said she’s made trips to the coast several times, including Newport and Cannon Beach, this was her first experience looking at a gray whale.
“I’ve only seen pictures up to today,” Purcell said. “This has been beyond exciting.”
Purcell was ready for the sightings, parking her car with a full view of the coast as she looked out at the harbor.
Inside at the Whale Watching Center, the sightings elicited mini cheers and moments of attentive silence.
Coastal whale watching companies also were able to capitalize on the excitement.
Depoe Bay, home to EcoExcursions and Tradewinds Charters, had several boats taking trips out to view the whales within the course of the early afternoon, some with at least a dozen tourists on board.
“It’s worth getting up close,” Nelson said. “It’s like being next to a semi truck.”
The beginning of the whale watching season wasn’t as successful.
Ongoing rain, stormy weather and a restless ocean might have provided a good backdrop for Herman Melville, but it didn’t help State Parks Ranger Luke Parsons, who staffs the Whale Watching Center and has helped oversee volunteers.
“It was hard to sight the whales because of the stormy weather,” Parsons said, adding that they told volunteers that “if it’s just miserable, go home early.”
The weather had a more noticeable impact at the center, which has reported sightings of as many as 50 whales per day during previous winter coastal migrations, and was struggling to get a dozen viewings per day Sunday through Monday.
However, with the improving weather, Parsons was confident that the deluge of visitors to the coast in the latter half of the week would be satisfied with their sojourn.
“There will be thousands of people out,” Parsons said.
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