Gray Whale

The gray whale is a large baleen whale found in the North Pacific Ocean, known for undertaking one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal, traveling up to nearly 20,000 kilometres round trip between summer feeding grounds in the Arctic and warm winter breeding lagoons off the coast of Mexico. It has a mottled grey body often covered in patches of barnacles and whale lice, no dorsal fin, and a series of small bumps called a dorsal ridge running along its back toward the tail instead. Unlike most baleen whales, which filter prey from open water, the gray whale is primarily a bottom feeder, rolling onto its side to suck up sediment from the seafloor and filtering out small crustaceans, worms and other invertebrates through its coarse baleen plates, leaving distinctive feeding pits on the ocean floor. Hunted to the brink of extinction in the Atlantic, where the population was wiped out entirely, and severely reduced in the Pacific by commercial whaling, the eastern North Pacific population has recovered strongly under protection, while a critically small western Pacific population remains highly endangered. Gray whales are known for their curiosity toward boats in their breeding lagoons, sometimes approaching vessels closely enough for people to touch them, a behavior that has made them a major draw for whale-watching tourism.