The gray whale is a baleen whale that lives in pods. These are used as tactile sensors, like cat's whiskers.
Females are larger than males, as with all baleen whales.
The gray whale's skin is usually gray with some blotchy white spots and has many parasites, including hundreds of pounds of barnacles and whale lice. There are little or no parasites on its right side because of the way it scrapes along the ocean bottom to feed. These grooves allow their throat to expand during the huge intake of water during filter feeding. They sieve through the mud on the bottom of the ocean floor of the arctic with their baleen. They usually feed on their right side, sucking up mouthfuls of mud filled with organic matter.