The gray whale is the only living member of the baleen whale family Eschrichtiidae.
Gray whales inhabit the eastern North Pacific Ocean.
They spend summers in the icy waters of the Bering and Chukchi seas, off Alaska. As the ice pack advances in the fall, gray whales embark on one of the longest known migrations of any mammal. The gray whale forages along the ocean floor. Turning on its side, the gray whale gulps great mouthfuls of silt, strains out water and mud through its baleen, and swallows bottom-dwelling invertebrates. While in the lagoons, some gray whales are unusually receptive to the attentions of humans who travel to the lagoons to see them.