Whale Watching Oregon Coast

Dockside Charters located in Depoe Bay, Oregon offers whale watching zodiac style aboard the Whales Tail. This is a very unique experience that puts you "up close and personal" for observing Oregon's resident gray whales. This is a great trip that gives you and your family an adventure that is not to be missed.

Here you can enjoy the incredible scenery of the Oregon Coast, transit the worlds smallest navigable channel, and enjoy watching gray whales, humpback whales, orca whales, seals, sea lions, and other marine life. We try to provide you with a once in a lifetime experience that is not to be missed along with some great memories. The Whales Tail takes up to 6 people or less and has all the latest safety equipment, we hope to see you soon.

Whale Bits

Off the Oregon Coast we see gray whales every month of the year. There are approximately 18,000 gray whales in the winter and spring migrations and a group of 200-400 whales that feed along the Oregon and Washington coast during fall and summer. In the spring March through June most of these gray whales make the journey from their breeding lagoons in Baja California to Arctic feeding grounds. On this northbound migration, small numbers of gray whales fall out of the migration group and stop at various locations along the Oregon coast, one of these places is Depoe Bay. These whales are called resident whales.

For whales to be known as residents, they must stay around a certain area for at least two days, exhibit feeding behavior, and return year after year. This distinguishes them from migrating whales which stop on their migration and feed then move on their way.

Along the central Oregon coast, resident gray whales begin showing up in May. On any one day throughout the summer, numbers range from one to 20. Some arrive in early summer, leave, and then return in late summer or early fall.

Resident gray whales remain around Depoe Bay for a period of days to months. Some residents don’t show up for a year or more, there is one whale “Scarback” who been around for at least 17 years.The last of the residents leave in October or November and return to the breeding lagoons of Baja California to rejoin the remainder of the population.



Click to view the latest forecast: Marine Forecast

Depoe Bay Events
Boiler Bay Fireworks Display
Highlight your Independence Day celebration.
When: July 3 Dusk
Location: Boiler Bay
Cost: Free

Something new this year we are offering are sweatshirts that have our Whales Tail logo on the back, different colors and sizes are available.

Click on the link below for our whale watching video, I hope to have more videos soon.

http://oceannavigation.blogspot.com/2010/04/awesome-whale-watching-video-on-whales.html

Daily Trip Times
8:00am, 9:30am, 11:00am, 12:30pm, 2:00pm, 3:30pm, 5:00pm, 6:30pm

Nautical Bits
Polaris - The North Star - Is always in the northern nighttime sky, Polaris, the North Star, marks the North Celestial Pole. For those of us in the northern hemisphere it is a navigator's benchmark, the elevation above the horizon is closely equal to the observer's latitude. Actually, Polaris is slightly off the pole. The pole itself, about which Polaris goes, marks true north, the fundamental direction for us in the northern hemisphere. Thousands of years from now, Polaris will be well off the pole, other stars someday taking its place. Polaris also marks the end of the handle of the Little Dipper, the prominent figure of Ursa Minor, the Smaller Bear.

Crux - The Southern Cross
If you live in the Southern hemisphere, or if you are vacationing in someplace like Hawaii, you can see a small but beautiful constellation with the shape of a cross. Its name is Crux and it is located very close to the constellation of Centaurus. The brightest star in Crux is called Acrux. Acrux is really two stars going around orbitting each other, but they are so far away that we see them as one star. Explorers of the Southern hemisphere used Crux to guide them when sailing. By looking at Crux, they could figure out in which direction to sail without getting lost.

The coffee is fresh and free, so stop by and say hello.and see what's going on.

Gift Certificates are available year round.

For more information on Whale Watching visit: http://oceannavigation.blogspot.com

Dockside Charters
270 Coast Guard Pl.
Depoe Bay, Oregon 97341

Phone:541-765-2545
Toll Free:1-800-733-8915

Stellar Sea Lions

Also known as, the Northern sea lion, the Stellar sea lion is the largest member of the Otariidae family. Its eastern Pacific population is listed as threatened.

Size: Males weigh up to 2,400 pounds and measure up to 11 feet in length; are much larger than females, especially in head, neck and shoulders. Females weigh up to 770 pounds and are seven to nine feet in length.

Description: Mature animals are light buff to reddish brown with furless flippers that appear brown or black. Males have manes resembling lion manes of long hairs extending from the back of their heads over their necks and shoulders.

Habitat: Range restricted to North Pacific Ocean and Southern Bering Sea. 2,000 estimated to live along Oregon coast. Found in coastal waters when foraging and migrating, but rarely in bays or rivers.

Behavior: Usually haul out on rocky reefs, gravel beaches; in some areas, may haul out on sandy beaches and onto sea ice in Bering Sea. For fear of losing harem of females, dominant mature males go hungry rather than leave territories during May-July breeding season to eat. Make roaring, lion-like noises.

Sportfishing (Rockfish)

Rockfish are a diversere and important group of marine fishes. Of 115 species of rockfish known world wide 97 of those can be found in the North Eastern Pacific. (In a range from Mexico to the Bering Sea). Their habitats vary in depth from very shallow tidal waters to thousands of feet deep. For that reason only about a dozen are within reach of hook and line fishers.

These fish are characterized by bony plates or spines on the head and body, a large mouth and pelvic fins attached forward near the pectoral fins. The spines are venomous and although not extremely toxic can still cause pain and infection. Some species are brightly colored and many others are difficult to distinguish from each other. Rockfishes are some what perch or bass-like in appearance and are often called seabass. All species have white flesh that is delicious to eat.

Also, rockfish have a type of swim bladder that uses a special gas-producing and absorbing gland to change the volume of gas in the swim bladder, which is used to maintain buoyancy at different depths in the water. This type of swim bladder is easily damaged when a fish is subjected to sudden changes in water pressure, such as when it is brought to the surface. The gas gland does not have enough time to absorb the gas in the swim bladder as the gas expands with a decrease in water pressure. Consequently, the swim bladder gets so large that it is too large for the fish's body cavity and it literally explodes out through the mouth of the rockfish. Countless rockfish are wasted when they are caught incidentally by fishers seeking other fish and are thrown back in the water.

Rockfish in our area can be divided into three ecological groups: shelf demersal, or those species that live in the nearshore, shallower waters, in rocky bottom areas shelf pelagic, or those species that also live mostly in the nearshore, shallower continental shelf waters, but that spend much of their time up in the water column and off the bottom, and slope, or those species that live in deeper waters, on the edge of the continental shelf.

Rockfish are extremely slow growing Rockfishes are slow-growing and extremely long-lived. Black rockfishes (Sebastes melanops), a common pelagic species, become sexually mature at about 10 years of age and have been aged to 40 years. Yelloweye rockfish( Sebastes ruberrimus), a shelf demersal rockfish, are a longer-lived species, becoming sexually mature around 15 years of age and living in excess of 100 years. There have been unconfirmed ages of fish at 114 years.

All rockfish, or species of the genus Sebastes, are ovoviviparous. This means that these fish give birth to live young after internal fertilization.

Food habits: Rockfish feed on a variety of food items. Juveniles eat primarily plankton, such as small crustaceans and copepods, as well as fish eggs. Larger rockfish eat fish such as sand lance, herring, and small rockfish, as well as crustaceans.

Species common to our area: Black, Blue, Quillback, Copper, Tiger Stripe, Vermilion, Canary, Yelloweye, Widow, Olive (or Yellowtail).

Yelloweye and Canary Rockfish are endangered and are not allowed to be retained.

More information to come on the other fisheries, Ling Cod, Halibut, Salmon, Tuna etc.