Distribution

• Near the coast from the Arctic down to their Mexican breeding grounds
• They like to stay mostly in waters less than 10 meters deep

Diet

• Eats mostly bottom dwelling creatures
• They roll on their sides along the bottom and suck sediment up from the floor
• Adults can eat 1-1.25 tons of food a day

Description

• 12-14 meters in length
• weigh 14-35 tons
• 280-360 baleen plates
• plates are yellow-white in color
• 2-4 throat grooves
• 3-4.5 meter blow
• gray in color
• no dorsal fin

Behavior

• mostly stick in groups of about three
• communicate through the following:
  • breaching
  • clicks
  • chirps
  • moans
  • whistles
  • underwater exhalation

Population

• about 22,000

Longevity

• about 70 years

Human influence

• whaled from 1600s to the mid 1900s
• still sometimes taken for scientific research, but meat still ends up getting sold

Other

• longest migration of any mammal (12-20 thousand km)
• also called "California Gray Whale" and "Devilfish"