It's Whale Watch Week on the Oregon coast. Trained volunteers are staffing 24 Whale Watching Spoken Here sites from Astoria to Crescent City, California during spring break.
About 18 thousand gray whales travel along the west coast in their migration north in the spring from Baja California to their feeding grounds in Alaska. Renee Fowler is a Park Ranger at the Depoe Bay Whale Watch Center. She says people who visit Whale Watch sites can get tips on spotting the giant mammals. You can see a whale come up for air with the naked eye.
Fowler: "Binoculars are not necessary but if you do have them, once you see a whale spout, come up to breath, then you could put your binoculars up to your eyes to get a better view. Oftentimes, you'll see their back after they've taken a couple of breaths and possibly their tale will come up as they go down for a dive."
Fowler says while the sunny weekend brought crowds, she doesn't think the rain forecast this week will dampen whale watching enthusiasm. Fowler advises those heading to the coast to dress for any and every kind of weather.
