Depoe Bay grey whales
SnorkelingNo permitMooring buoys
Marine life · Also good for anchoring
- Best time
- Jun–Oct
- Water temp.
- Marine life
Grey whales feeding within sight of the shore through the whole summer, close enough that they are watched from the sea wall as well as from boats, working the mysid swarms over the rock reefs a few hundred metres out. A tiny natural basin blasted into a harbour in the 1920s and connected to the sea by a channel under the highway bridge, which made a fishing and whale-watching fleet possible where there was no room for one. The summer resident whales have been studied from here for decades. Anchorage: Berth in the harbour if you can fit; the basin is one of the smallest navigable harbours anywhere. Newport, 12nm south, is the practical base for a cruising yacht. Hazards: The entrance is a narrow rock channel under a road bridge that breaks in a swell, and it is not a bar to take lightly in any boat. Approach distances to whales are regulated.



