16 Facts About Gray whale

The common name of the whale comes from the gray patches and white mottling on its dark skin.

The gray whale is the sole living species in the genus Eschrichtius.

Gray whale is distributed in an eastern North Pacific, and an endangered western North Pacific, population.

John Edward Gray whale placed it in its own genus in 1865, naming it in honour of physician and zoologist Daniel Frederik Eschricht.

Gray whale was first described as a distinct species by Lilljeborg 1861 based on a subfossil found in the brackish Baltic Sea, apparently a specimen from the now extinct north Atlantic population.

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Gray whale 1864 realized that the rib and scapula of the specimen was different from those of any known rorquals, and therefore erected a new genus for it, Eschrichtius.

Gray whale has a dark slate-gray color and is covered by characteristic gray-white patterns, scars left by parasites which drop off in its cold feeding grounds.

The gray whale lacks a dorsal fin, instead bearing 6 to 12 dorsal crenulations, which are raised bumps on the midline of its rear quarter, leading to the flukes.

Gray whale became extinct in the North Atlantic in the 18th century.

In January 2011, a gray whale that had been tagged in the western population was tracked as far east as the eastern population range off the coast of British Columbia.

Genetic analysis of fossil and prefossil gray whale remains in the Atlantic Ocean suggests several waves of dispersal from the Pacific to the Atlantic related to successive periods of climactic warming – during the Pleistocene before the last glacial period and the early Holocene immediately following the opening of the Bering Strait.

On 7 January 2014, a pair of newborn or aborted conjoined twin gray whale calves were found dead in the Laguna Ojo de Liebre, off the west coast of Mexico.

Gray whale had not been observed on Commander Islands until 2016.

The Gray whale died within 12 hours, sinking while heading out to sea.

The substantial nearshore industrialization and shipping congestion throughout the migratory corridors of the western gray whale population represent potential threats by increasing the likelihood of exposure to ship strikes, chemical pollution, and general disturbance.

The western gray whale population is considered to be endangered according to IUCN standards.