Orcas from This Week ID'd as Some Show Up on South Oregon Coast

Published 05/07/26 at 3:55 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Coos Bay, Oregon) – Orcas are going hog wild on the Oregon coast, with a variety of sightings since Monday. (Photo Jaklyn Larsen from Monday's encounter)

A large group of them were seen and documented from Newport all the way down past Yachats, and apparently heading southward.

Then more killer whales were seen on the south coast Wednesday.

Julie Conrad runs the Oregon Whale Sightings group on Facebook and ID'd the set that had been on the central coast. There were three from one pod and three from another.

“It was T049B, T049B3, T049B5 along with T050D, T050E, and T050B1,” Conrad siad. “T050D was seen with the T049B's on several occasions in Oregon last year, including mother's day weekend in Yaquina Bay. “

The T049B's are led by matriarch T049B (born 1992), and include T049B2 (2010), T049B3 (born 2013), T049B4 (born 2019), and T049B5 (born 2024), Conrad said

However two of them were not in the bunch.

“T049B2 and T049B4 have likely dispersed from the pod,” Conrad said.

Then, Wednesday afternoon, the southern Oregon coast lit up with orca reports.

Winchester Bay had a few encounters, with one person posting they'd seen them snacking on seals in the Reedsport area. They were apparently just south of the giant triangle, a ways from Ziolkouski Beach Park.

Cape Arago near Coos Bay was also graced by their presence.

Neither posts said exactly how many and Conrad is still working on photos and ID'ing them. So it's not known if it's the same bunch on the central coast.

There has been an abundance of whale news that hasn't been good, with so many gray whales washing up dead. The fifth one for the Oregon coast came up this past week just below God's Thumb near Lincoln City, but it's in too remote a place to do a necropsy.

While there were some amazing orca sightings and video in late April of killer whales, there was also a gnarly rush of unpleasant finds up north on the Washington coast. That area saw its 17th dead whale last week. This week also had a fin whale wash up in the inland sea of Puget Sound, though that is unrelated to the problem with gray whales. Rare Fin Whale Washes Up on Washington Coast: What Necropsy Revealed - Evidence of starvation and a killer whale attack

There was, however, some great news for whales with the first mother and calf spotted on the big migration.

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