CHINOOK — There are numerous citizen reports on Facebook and elsewhere of continuing sightings of large whales well inside the Columbia River, especially in the vicinity of the Astoria-Megler Bridge, Fort Columbia State Park and Chinook.

Tuesday morning, Sept. 22, photographer Harvey Chatfield — who posts on Facebook at his Half Blind Photography page — spotted a breaching whale just offshore from the Middle Village/Station Camp Unit of Lewis and Clark National Park east of the Chinook tunnel on U.S. Highway 101.

Chatfield also photographed a whale spouting in the north channel of the river at Megler on Monday, Sept. 21.

On Sept. 19, several local residents reported seeing whales, including one that fully breached out of the river east of the national park’s Dismal Nitch Unit.

Jay Fields reported seeing seven to 10 whales spouting miles apart in the Pacific Ocean off Seaside, Ore., from 12th Street to the cove.