Unfortunately, other species of whales have not been able to recover as quickly as the eastern gray and most remain highly endangered. The gray whale's range formerly included the coasts of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Population estimates indicate that there are more than 20,000 gray whales in the eastern Pacific, approximately equal to estimates of the historic population. The status of the western Pacific population is relatively unknown, but it is believed to be highly endangered and close to extinction. The gray whale is an interesting case study because one population is extinct, one is endangered, and one is recovered.
All whales are mammals, and they are more closely related to cows than to fish.
They are warm-blooded, breathe air and give birth to live young. Adult gray whale females mate every other year and are pregnant for more than a year. Gray whales are bottom feeders, dredging the sandy ocean floor for amphipods, isopods, tubeworms, and other bottom-dwelling organisms. They are in the class of whales that have no teeth, called baleen whales. They eat by using baleen, a fringed plate that lines the upper jaw and traps prey in the mouth while water is filtered out.