https:\/\/chinookobserver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/04\/Willapa-Whale-5pm-April-1.mp4<\/a><\/p>\n\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n
RAYMOND \u2014 In what seems like an April fool\u2019s prank but which numerous witnesses say is the real thing, a small whale has made its way miles up the Willapa River in north Pacific County.<\/p>\n
As of about 4:30 p.m., the whale is attracting many spectators to an area between the bridge at Alexander\/Camp One and the bridge at Camp One\/Mill Creek on the river, which feeds into Willapa Bay.<\/p>\n
This is prime time for the gray whale migration up the Pacific Coast. Grays whale occasionally come into Willapa Bay, where they forage on burrowing shrimp and other marine animals.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s highly unusual for one to go so far up a fresh water stream, and its life may be in danger.<\/p>\n
Videos of the whale elicited much local excitement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWow, that\u2019s absolutely crazy and exciting! Hope he finds his way back home,\u201d one person commented.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was amazing to see! Nothing I ever expected to see in Willapa!\u201d said another.<\/p>\n
The Chinook Observer\u2019s north county correspondent Jeff Clemens is on the scene and we will try to bring additional news and video about it as it becomes available.<\/p>\n
Clemens said at 4:50 p.m. Wednesday that a small place is overhead and that the U.S. Marine Mammal Stranding Response Network has joined the search.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No joke: Juvenile whale swims up Willapa River in SW WA Published 5:39 pm Wednesday, April 1, 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-559776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}