Small boat traffic in the coastal areas of Oregon can be heavy at times, particularly near ports during fishery openers. This boat traffic often has high overlap with the nearshore foraging habitat of gray whales. Many of the gray whales we study show scars of vessel strikes, like Equal, illustrating the direct impact of this overlap with boat traffic. Some vessel strikes can be lethal, while others can leave the whale injured for life, potentially causing infection and reducing their ability to move, feed, and travel efficiently. When a boat is travelling fast, a whale often does not have time to react or know which way to go to avoid collision.