The gray whale is the only living member of the baleen whale family Eschrichtiidae. California 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.
Gray whales are predominantly bottom feeders and forage along the ocean floor.
Turning on its side, a 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 human who travel to the lagoons to see them. Legally protected since 1946, gray whales have made an astonishing comeback. The current population is about 24,000 individuals, a figure believed to match or exceed pre-whaling numbers. All Rights Reserved.