Gray Whale

Estimated Population:

• North Pacific population - 26,000
• Atlantic population - extinct
• Western pacific population - threatened

Ways to identify this species:

Gray skin with numerous light patches, head appears triangular from above, no dorsal fin

Biology

• This coastal species undertakes the longest migration of any whale, traveling more than 4,000 miles from summer feeding grounds in the Arctic to spend the winter in the warmer waters of the Pacific Coast and Mexico.


• Grey whales are mainly bottom feeders that eat invertebrates and crustaceans from the mud and sand using their baleen. During migration or breeding, they usually do not eat, instead consuming enormous amounts of food during the summer.