Gray Whales Essay

Gray Whale Physical Description The Gray Whale, or Eschrichtius robustus, has a smooth, oval-like shape, and is known for its mottled, gray coloring. Its head is slightly tapered off, and the upper jaw overlaps the lower jaw a little bit. They are baleen whales, so instead of teeth, they have a row of stiff plates made out of keratin, the material our fingernails are made of. Gray Whales are prone to some types of skin diseases, such as Orange Whale Lice, and can grow barnacles on their skin. They have bilateral symmetry, which means their body could be cut in half, and look the same on both sides. This type of whale can range from 12.192 - 15.24 meters in length, and can weigh up to 27.25 - 36.28 metric tons. Gray Whales are mostly spotted breaching. Breaching is when they leap partially out of the water, and fall back in the water.

Habitat Gray Whales live in a relatively shallow part of the Pacific Ocean most of the time, called the Neritic Zone. The Neritic Zone is about 200 meters deep, and houses most ocean organisms. They live along the North American West Coast and the Eastern coast of Asia. They live alone, or in pods, small groups of whales. In

It is estimated that they eat about 1,089 kilograms of food a day during the 140-300 day feeding period they have once a year. That comes to a total of about 150,000 kilograms of food consumed by one whale. Their diet consists mostly of small crustaceans, like shrimp and krill, plankton, tube worms, and mollusks. To eat, they go to the bottom of their feeding grounds, roll on their sides, and traps the stirred up sediment in their mouths. Then, their baleen plates filter out the sediment, and send the food down their throats. The main predators of Gray Whales are Orcas, large sharks, and humans. They were on the U.S. endangered species list until 1994. As of now, Gray Whales have a healthy population of 19,000