Over Labor Day weekend in Depoe Bay, Salem photographer and content creator Brian Stone was rock fishing in an aluminum boat with his kids when they had two close-up encounters with gray whales.
In one video, a whale suddenly surfaces directly in front of them, slips under the hull, then rises on the other side to blow. “It scared us to death when it first popped up,” Stone said. “You could hear the whale breathe out and then suck the air back in — it’s amazing.”
On a separate outing the same weekend, video shows a gray whale at the surface passing slowly alongside their boat about a dozen feet away, blowing and then diving. The kids’ shocked excitement is audible in the background.
Gray whale sightings near Depoe Bay are common. Nicknamed the “whale watching capital of the Oregon Coast,” the area serves as a feeding and resting stop for hundreds of whales during their 10,000-mile round-trip migration between Baja California and Alaska. Of the thousands making the journey, only a few hundred typically peel off to rest here.
More Oregon gray whale stories:
More Stone encounters:
Stone also recently spotted a rare coastal visitor — a sunfish — near Newport by Yaquina Head Lighthouse while he was salmon fishing alone. He said the fish was curious, and with the motor off, they watched each other as it swam past the boat. When the fish was several feet below the surface, Stone put a finger in the water; to his surprise, the fish rose to the surface and he was able to touch it. He said it felt like a jellyfish.
Sunfish, members of the genus Mola, are true bony fish — unlike sharks, which have only cartilage — and have drifted through the world’s oceans for tens of millions of years. Found worldwide, they’re rarely seen off Oregon because they typically inhabit temperate and tropical seas. Sightings have ticked up locally: In June, a 6½-foot deceased sunfish washed ashore about a quarter-mile south of the Sunset Beach approach near Gearhart. It was the fourth sunfish stranding documented on Oregon’s coast since June 2024.
A rare ocean sunfish drifts near the surface off Depoe Bay in early October 2025.Courtesy of Brian Stone
In June, a 6½-foot deceased sunfish washed ashore about a quarter-mile south of the Sunset Beach approach near Gearhart. It was the fourth sunfish stranding documented on Oregon’s coast since June 2024.
See more of Brian Stone’s offshore encounters.
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