Whale Cove

Whale Cove sits south of Depoe Bay, a cliff-encircled pocket about a third of a mile across, viewed from the bluff at Rocky Creek State Scenic Viewpoint on US-101. The upland is entirely private and there is no trail down, so access is kayak or boat only, with a small landing on the north edge that opens only at low tide. Mariners are advised to stay at least 600 yards offshore because of hidden rocks and shifting water level, and the cove is not workable for anything larger than a kayak.

Human history at the cove is deep and contested. In 1998, British historian Bob Ward proposed Whale Cove as Sir Francis Drake's 1579 New Albion careening site, one of more than 20 candidates for a claim the officially recognized site is Drakes Bay in California. During Prohibition the cove ran under the nickname Bootlegger Bay. State guides describe it as the oldest marine reserve in Oregon, and in December 2014 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added a 14-acre Whale Cove Unit to the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge.

The cove holds some of the only offshore kelp beds north of Cape Arago, giving the site a kelp forest biome anchored on the basalt inside the cove, a rocky reef biome around it, and a surf zone biome where open-ocean swell wraps over the outer rocks. Those kelp beds feed the resident gray whales that summer along this stretch of coast. Scuba divers who make the paddle across find relatively undisturbed intertidal and subtidal water and the kelp beds. There is no spearfishing here because the entire cove is closed to take.

There is no upland parking or shore access; the practical launch is by kayak. All take of fish, shellfish, and other invertebrates below extreme high tide is prohibited within the Whale Cove Marine Conservation Area and enforced by ODFW, and the cove also sits inside the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge. The land above the water is protected by Rocky Creek State Scenic Viewpoint.