What are gray whales like?
Gray whales have their own taxonomic family, genus, and species. They are the most coastal of the baleen whales and are often found within a few miles of shore. Each year gray whales migrate between their summer feeding grounds in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas to their winter breeding grounds off Baja California, Mexico. This is one of the longest migrations by a mammal species. Gray whales are gray in color and their skin is encrusted with barnacles and a unique species of small crustaceans known as “whale lice.” They have 2-3 short throat grooves and instead of a dorsal fin they have a low dorsal hump followed by 6-12 “knuckles” or bumps. Whalers used to call gray whales “devil fish” because of their aggressive response to being hunted.
