Sales of whale license plates generate money for whale research

(FEBRUARY 8, 202) Nearly 10,000 Oregonians have purchased gray whale license plates since they went on sale a year ago. The profits provide critical support for Oregon State University (OSU) researchers studying gray whales that frequent Oregon’s waters.

The license plate, with the image of a gray whale mother and her calf, went on sale at Oregon Department of Motor Vehicle offices on February 1, 2019. The plates cost $40 to order or renew. Approximately $35 of each sale goes to OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute based at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. Through December 2019, the license plates generated about $300,000 for the institute.

Marine ecologist Leigh Torres is an assistant professor with the Marine Mammal Institute. She was the first beneficiary of the plate funds. Torres conducts research focused on Oregon’s “summer resident” gray whales during 2019. Torres and her team conduct “health check-ups” on the whales by collecting photographs and video from small boats and drones.

Most gray whales migrate from breeding grounds in Mexico to feeding grounds in northern Canada and Alaska, where they spend the summer. Oregon gray whales spend the summer months feeding in coastal waters of Oregon, as well as northern California, Washington and southern Canada.

Torres will also monitor gray whales off the coast of Port Orford in summer 2020. In Port Orford, researchers team with local high school students and OSU undergraduates to study whale behavior. At the end of every field season, the research team shares its findings and experience with the community at a public presentation.

License plate funds will also strengthen a Newport-based whale entanglement response team to aid whales caught in debris such as fishing gear.