Most give birth every one to three years. They ovulate following migration patterns so that they can give birth in warmer waters. Females have multiple mates during their yearly ovulation. The reproductive process often involves three or more whales. Gray whales have a pair of flippers to steer them while traveling. They swim with fan-like flukes that the whale moves up and down to move. The gray whale has a blubber layer with a ten-inch thickness to keep them warm in cold waters. These protrusions create the dorsal ridge. Instead, they have 6-12 dorsal crenulations, or knuckles, that lead to their flukes. They have depressions on their upper jaws with one hard-to-see stiff hair, and they have shallow furrows on the underside of their throats rather than on their ventral surface. Their baleen plates have bristles that filter prey for them to eat. Gray whales have an unusually short, off-white baleen that makes them stand out from other baleen whales. Their mottled and crusty appearance comes from the parasites covering their bodies. These sea creatures have dark, gray skin with light gray and white patches on its body. Cetaceans include streamlined-bodied, carnivorous, and highly intelligent marine mammals, which include toothed and baleen whales. Mature whales weigh between 17 and 44 tons depending on their size, making them the ninth-largest cetacean. Female whales tend to grow slightly larger than males. Their tales have a notched center with pointed ends. Their newborns are about 16 feet while adults average between 44 and 49, with tails about 10-11 feet in width. The gray whale is an enormous marine mammal, reaching nearly 50 feet in length. These markings come from the parasites that attach to them and leave in cold feeding grounds. Scientists can identify each one based on their scars, patches, and dorsal surfaces. The team takes photos to identify individuals, collects tissue samples and records their underwater communication.Gray whales stand out from their heart-shaped blow in calm surface conditions. In October 2013, the energy company announced that they would postpone construction for five years.įurther south, in the Gulf of California, WWF supports a research team that is monitoring the population size and health of the gray whales that return each winter. WWF and other organizations campaigned to stop an offshore oil drilling platform from being built in that critically endangered population's habitat. We helped restrict seismic surveys that were shown to displace gray whales from their feeding ground and continue to urge the Russian government to establish a gray whale sanctuary off Sakhalin Island. WWF and partners have been instrumental in strengthening protection for the western North Pacific gray whales. Locals here affectionately call gray whales "friendly ones" as they have an unusual tendency to approach whale-watching boats and check out the occupants. The calm, warm waters of the lagoons are a safe place for young whales, free from predators like killer whales. In the winter, these eastern gray whales migrate south along the west coast of the US to Mexico to breed and have their calves. Their well-known migrations take them between feeding and breeding areas, swimming as much as 12,000 miles round trip.Ĭritically endangered western gray whales migrate into their summer feeding grounds near Sahkalin Island, Russia in late May or early June and return to their winter feeding grounds in the South China Sea in late autumn. Summer feeding grounds for the eastern population lie in the Bering and Chukchi Seas between Alaska and Russia. Gray whales stay close to shore and feed in shallow water. They are a type of baleen whale, which means they filter food from the water through special bristly structures in their mouths. Gray whales have a hump and a ridge of sharp bumps along their backs, instead of a dorsal fin.
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