We Gray Whales
What can I tell you about us? Well, we are mammals - just like you. In case you forgot, we share these traits:
  • We are both warm-blooded
  • We have hair, yes we have hair. If you look real close at this picture of Joey, you will see dimples on his upper jaw (rostrum). Each of those dimples contains a few tiny hairs. Look for them when you come to see us.
  • We give live birth to our babies albeit a little bigger than your babies. A kid like Joey can weigh 1,100 to 1,500 pounds and is about 15 feet long. Remember that we moms are 40 to 46 feet long and 30 to 40 tons so it isn't as bad as it sounds.
  • We nurse our young. Now this is the tough part - we nurse these kids for 7 to 8 months on milk that is 53% fat (human milk is only 2% fat). Part of this time we moms are not feeding, because our favorite and most plentiful food supply is clear up in the Chukchi Sea, almost 7,000 miles away.
  • We breath air. You guys call it a blow - like this picture of Joey's mom, Josie, coming up to exhale. Some people call it a spout - I guess because they think it is water. It is just condensation much like when you exhale on a cold day.
    Josie here is very adept at coming up beside one of your boats and exhaling and getting your cameras wet, she has been known to blow peoples hats off. Don't complain about the odor - fish smell is beautiful to us.
I told you our favorite food was up in the Chuckchi Sea. Well, here is a map showing our migration route. Of course we don't use a map, we have our own special navigation method, which you humans have never figured out.

You are also puzzled by what signals we look for to start our migration, you just haven't figured out our calendar. You also don't know why we migrate, except you do know that the Chukchi Sea freezes over and we need to get out of there because we can't breath through the ice.

Well, we just may keep it as our own little secret.
We gray whales are unique among whales in that we get our food off the bottom of the ocean. As we dive, we roll onto our right sides (although there are a number of "lefties" who roll on their left), scoop a big mouth full of the sediment from the sea floor, then push all the water and silt out through our baleen. What is left is a whole bunch of delicious little morsels you call amphipods.

Some of us really like to have our baleen rubbed. So when we come up to the boat, just run your hand along our lower lip and we will open up for a good rubbing. This is our form of a good dental appointment.
Check out Glen's barnacles! We gray whales have our own unique species of barnacle. We also have lice. Now don't go "Ugh, lice." These little creatures (that are about an inch long) do a great job of cleaning out our wounds and help us heal faster.

Gray whales do have the distinction of being the most heavily infested with external parasites. I guess everyone loves us.
One of our favorite pastimes is to spy hop. That's what Jill is doing in this picture. We come up out of the water a ways (sometimes so our eye is out of the water) and then sink back underwater. Jill also likes to flop back in the water on her side. I think you humans call that the Baja spy flop. You can also see those lines under her chin (those aren't age lines) those are her throat grooves which she expands while she is feeding.
Gus here is doing a tail lob. He is showing off how powerful he is. You will see these kinds of antics during mating. Most of the guys will be gone when you come see us in the lagoon in March, so you may not see this behavior.

You can see from that picture that we are kind of gray I guess that's why you call us gray whales.

By the way our tails are often called flukes, and it is a very powerful tool for us.
Jackie is breaching in this picture. We like to do this when you do not have your camera ready, or when we are far away from your boat so you can't get a very good picture.

You can see her pectoral fins at her side, some humans laugh at us gray whales because our "pecs" are so short, but they work just fine.

Frequently, when we start to breach we get in a groove and keep on breaching a number of times. So if you do see a breach, keep watching that spot, we just might come back up - and maybe you can have your camera ready by then.
If you want to find our about our friendly encounters with you humans, push the "friendlies" button.
Last Revised: Sat, Sep 7, 2002