After 57 years of protection from commercial hunting, the gray whale population had recovered sufficiently to be removed from the Endangered Species List in 1994. At that time, the population was estimated at 23,000, which is thought to be close to the prewhaling population. A small quota of 176 whales per year is harvested along the Siberian coast. That number was determined by the average number that had been taken throughout the last 20 years of the recovery period, during which the population continued to grow. Gray whales are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act by National Marine Fisheries Service guidelines that require boaters not to approach within 100 yards of the animals.
Inappropriate tourism can be a harassment that affects the animal's use of important habitats.
Industrial development in some of the breeding, calving, and migration areas may be the greatest threat to the gray whales' future. The only natural predators of gray whales are killer whales and large sharks, Killer whales tend to show up along the Oregon coast during late April and May and may target females and calves migrating north. The gray whale is the most common large whale seen from shore along the west coast of North America. Gray whales are found off the Oregon coast all year. The gray whale gets its name form its blotchy color pattern.