Visit the Coast for Whale Watching Week!

Want to avoid the after Christmas let-down? Plan a trip to the Oregon Coast for Whale watching week Dec. 26, 2009 – Jan. 1, 2010. Oregon has a great program called “Whale Watching Spoken Here” that features 26 points on the Coast from Ilwaco WA down to Crescent City CA, and 24 points in Oregon between. These points are staffed with trained volunteers from 10AM to 1PM daily to help visitors identify and learn more about our beautiful marine mammals.

Gray Whales, the focus of Whale Watching Week  are beginning their annual 12,000 mile migration down to the calm bays in Mexico to give birth to their young, then, in the spring they will make the return journey to their summer feeding grounds. (Spring Whale watching week will be March 20-27, 2010.)

Gray Whales were hunted to extinction in the Atlantic and are Endangered in the Western Pacific. Thanks to protections by the Mexican Government, the United Nations and finally a whaling moratorium in the eighties, the Gray Whale has made a good recovery in the Eastern Pacific and were removed from the Endangered list in 1994, though they are still considered “threatened.”

Don’t miss this opportunity to view the gentle giants of the deep! They are truly an awe inspiring sight.