Species: Eschrichtius robustus

Gray Whale
Species
Mammals
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Species of concern in the Salish Sea
Species of concern in the Puget Sound watershed
Subtidal surveys in Puget Sound
Salish Sea-reliant mammals
Puget Sound Partnership indicator species: mammals
Marine mammals of the Salish Sea
Grey whale breaching

This is a large, gray mottled baleen whale lacking a dorsal fin. The head is narrow with an arched profile. Baleen is yellowish white and 2-10 inches (5-25 cm) long. Two nostrils are present. A middorsal hump is followed by a series of about 6-12 bumps. Flippers are short and broad. Body is varyingly colored by patches of barnacles and cyamid crustaceans. Calves are more uniformly dark than are adults. Maximum length is around 50 feet (15 meters). Sources: Leatherwood and Reeves (1983), Nowak (1991).

Articles:

Biomarkers update insights on reproductive physiology of gray whales

An article published in PLoS ONE in 2021 describes a study of hormone concentrations in gray whales. The findings may contribute to increased knowledge of reproductive physiology and population dynamics among the species.

Gray whale and calf
"Sounders" arrive as gray whales decline along the coast

Each spring, about a dozen gray whales make a brief detour into the Salish Sea before heading north to their feeding grounds in the Arctic. Biologists dubbed these whales "Sounders" after first noting their presence in the 1990s, and the whales have become rare but widely anticipated visitors to local waters. The whales were spotted again this year, but biologists have documented a 24 percent decline in gray whale populations along the West Coast.

Tail of a gray whale showing above water
Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robustus)

This article was originally published by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife as part of its annual report Threatened and Endangered Wildlife in Washington.

Gray whale (photo by Chris Johnson).
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Craniata
Class

Mammalia

Order

Cetacea

Family

Eschrichtiidae

Genus

Eschrichtius

Natureserve Explorer
Source:
ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.104316
Classification
Other Global Common Names
Grey Whale - baleine grise
Informal Taxonomy
<p>Animals, Vertebrates - Mammals - Whales and Dolphins</p>
Formal Taxonomy
Animalia - Craniata - Mammalia - Cetacea - Eschrichtiidae - Eschrichtius - .

This is a large, gray mottled baleen whale lacking a dorsal fin. The head is narrow with an arched profile. Baleen is yellowish white and 2-10 inches (5-25 cm) long. Two nostrils are present. A middorsal hump is followed by a series of about 6-12 bumps. Flippers are short and broad. Body is varyingly colored by patches of barnacles and cyamid crustaceans. Calves are more uniformly dark than are adults. Maximum length is around 50 feet (15 meters). Sources: Leatherwood and Reeves (1983), Nowak (1991).

Short General Description
A large baleen whale.
Habitat Type Description
Marine
Migration
<p>false - false - true - The western Pacific stock migrates south from western and northern Sea of Okhotsk to the southern coast of China (Rice, in Wilson and Ruff 1999).</p>
Non-migrant
false
Locally Migrant
false
Food Comments
In the southern Chukchi Sea and northern Bering Sea, gray whales eat mainly tube-dwelling gammaridean amphipods; also various other small bottom invertebrates in small quantity. In the southern Bering Sea along the eastern Alaska Peninsula and adjacent Alaskan mainland, shrimp and mysids are the major prey. In Puget Sound, the whales feed on epibenthic ghost shrimp in littoral sand flats (Weitkamp et al. 1992). Elsewhere feeding is less common and prey may include swarms of amphipods, cumaceans, mysids, and infaunal polychaetes. <br><br>Gray whales employ a feeding technique not used by other large whales. While swimming forward and rolling to one side they run the head along the bottom and filter small invertebrates from the mud-water interface. They also may ingest invertebrates associated with masses of algae that are scraped through the mouth.
Reproduction Comments
Females are impregnated during the southward migration or close to calving grounds. Gestation lasts about 13.5 months. A single calf is born late December-early February. Weaning occurs within 9 months. The calving interval is usually 2 years. Individuals become sexually mature in 5-11 years.
Ecology Comments
In the northern Bering Sea, various seabirds (northern fulmar, red phalarope, black-legged kittiwake, and thick-billed murre) commonly forage on prey in the mud plumes stirred up by feeding gray whales.
Length
1410
Weight
3.3E7
NatureServe Global Status Rank
G4
Global Status Last Reviewed
2002-08-15
Global Status Last Changed
2002-08-15
Conservation Status Map
<img src="http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/GetMapGif?CA.BC=S3&US.AK=S4&US.CA=SNR&US.HI=SNR&US.NC=SX&US.OR=__&US.WA=__" alt="Conservation Status Map" style="width: 475px; height: auto;" />
Global Range
FG - 20,000-2,500,000 square km (about 8000-1,000,000 square miles) - FG - Range includes coastal waters of the North Pacific. Most gray whales are in the Bering and Chukchi seas in summer (some occur then off northern Alaska, the Siberian coast, and southward along the coast to British Columbia and northern California). In winter, they occur in coastal waters off Baja California, Sonora, and Sinaloa. Primary birthing areas are Laguna Ojo de Liebre (Scammon's Lagoon), Laguna Guerrero Negro, Laguna San Ignacio, and Estero Soledad, Mexico (IUCN 1991). This species has been extirpated in the Atlantic (last seen about 1750; Rice 1998, Nowak 1991). A small population exists in the western Pacific (Okhotsk Sea in summer to South Korean coast in winter) (Weller et al. 1999).
Global Range Code
FG
Global Range Description
20,000-2,500,000 square km (about 8000-1,000,000 square miles)
ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.104316