Whale Watching Worldwide

Oregon
Year Number of
whale
watchers
AAGR: Number of
operators
Direct
expenditures
Indirect
Expenditures
Total
Expenditure
1998 190,137 N/A 10 $818,000 $5,577,000 $6,395,000
2008 376,618 7.1% 11 $1,587,205 $28,246,343 $29,833,548
Whale Watch Locations:
01: Newport
02: Depoe Bay
Oregon is a state well positioned to benefit from the regular annual
migration of gray whales. In fact, some in the state claim an almost
year round prevalence of whales, when the southern and northern
migrations of gray whales are combined with the regular visitation
of humpback whales and those gray whales that remain in the
region to feed over summer months.
The state has long been aware of the potential tourist attraction
presented by the consistent opportunity to view these whales. In
1998, it was estimated that over 126,000 people watched these
whales from land, in addition to 64,000 from boats. In 2008, we estimate that a total of 377,000 tourists
participated in land, sea and air‐based whale watching along the Oregon coast.
The promotion of land‐based whale watching in Oregon is some of the best‐organised land‐based whale
watching in the world. The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department promotes 26 locations along the coast
(2 of which are in the neighbouring states of Washington and California) as whale watching locations within
a programme called Whale Watching Spoken Here. The programme focuses particularly on promoting two
peak whale watching weeks annually that coincide with holidays in spring and winter. The weeks are
organised to maximise the whale viewing opportunities for visitors as well as to provide educational content
to the experience. To achieve this, each year volunteers are trained and located for two weeks at each of
the 26 coastal sites to welcome and educate visitors providing a higher quality, and free, whale watching
experience. The programme also produces comprehensive data of whale sightings each day of those two
weeks from each site, as well as visitor numbers to each site. A Whale Watching Centre has also been
established in Depoe Bay to provide visitors with year‐round information.
Estimates for whale watchers in 2008 for this report are based on data collected by the Whale Watching
Spoken Here programme, as well as visitor data to the Whale Watching Center in Depoe Bay, and then
modelled across the year. The estimate for 2008 land‐based whale watchers in Oregon is 315,148 (excluding
the two Whale Watching Spoken Here sites that are in neighbouring states) ‐ more than double the numbers
in 1998.
Boat‐based whale watchers have not seen such a rise in the last decade: rather, 2008 figures show a slight
drop from 64,000 to around 61,470, on average 0.4% decrease per year. Research for this study indicated
numbers have dropped slightly across the entire coast, with no one region dropping more drastically than
others. It does appear that whale watching has become more concentrated, with a clear majority of trips
occurring in the two main whale watch centres of Newport and Depoe Bay (over 95%) – the latter taking the
highest numbers – and most trips taken by only a small number of operators. The other five smaller whale
watching centres have dropped in numbers and operators since 1998 with the majority of operators
seeming to focus more on their core business of charter fishing.
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