{"id":79,"date":"2019-03-12T23:10:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T23:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/n3-graywhale\/"},"modified":"2020-12-08T20:53:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T20:53:08","slug":"n3-graywhale","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/n3-graywhale\/","title":{"rendered":"Gray Whale"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

by Corinne Daniel
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

Gray
\nWhale <\/font>

\n(Eschrictius robustus)<\/i><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

The gray whale is a baleen whale.
\nThe gray whale used to be known among the whalers as the devilfish due to
\nthe fierce fight they put up to defend themselves against the hunters. A
\nfull-grown gray whale can be up to forty-five to fifty feet long, and weigh
\napproximately thirty-six tons. As is common with all baleen whales, female
\ngray whales are typically larger than the males of this species. The coloration
\nof the gray whale is usually gray with white, blotchy spots. The gray whale
\nis equipped with two to four throat grooves, which are each about five feet
\nlong. The purpose of these throat grooves is to enable the throat to expand
\nin preparation of the huge intakes of water necessary in filter feeding.
\nAlthough lacking a dorsal fin, the gray whale does have two broad flippers
\nand a series of little ridges are stationed along its back near the flukes
\n(tail). <\/font><\/p>\n

Gray whales are bottom feeders.
\nThey typically feed on their right side and they eat by sucking up mouthfuls
\nof mud and their baleen filters pick out the food and they spit the rest
\nof the mud back into the water. Gray whales eat mostly small crustaceans,
\nplankton and mollusks. The gray whale eats very little during certain times
\nof the year including the duration of migrations and while in the warm breeding
\nwaters (about 3-5 months). The gray whale can have up to a 10-inch layer
\nof blubber during these times they are forced to live off this fat. <\/font><\/p>\n

The estimated worldwide population
\nof gray whales is about 15,000 – 20,000. Gray whales usually congregate
\nin small pods of about three whales, but these pods can have as many as
\nsixteen members. In feeding waters larger groups (up to hundreds of whales)
\nare formed, these are temporary bonds and they do not establish long-term
\nrelationships. Gray whales may communicate with each other with sounds but
\nwe cannot be sure. For instance, noises such as forceful spouts might signal
\naggravation or slapping pectoral flippers of flukes may indicate arousal,
\nexcitement, or aggression. <\/font><\/p>\n

As their surroundings require,
\ngray whales are very agile swimmers. Gray whales have the ability to dive
\nfor up to 30 minutes and can safely go 500 feet deep. They also breach,
\nwhich is when they jump out of the water a little bit and re-enter at an
\nangle. When they do this they make huge splashes and loud noise. It is possibly
\na means of communicating with other whales as well. Also gray whales also
\ndo something called “spyhopping”. When spyhopping the whale pokes its head
\nup to 10 feet out top the water, and has a look around by turning slowly.
\nAlthough the gray whale does live underwater it has to breathe air by coming
\nup to the surface of the water and breathing through two blowholes near
\nthe top of the head. When they are at rest, the gray whale breathes about
\n2-3 times a minute, but when they are diving they can go for 3-5 minutes
\nwith out coming to the surface to breathe. <\/font><\/p>\n

The most common habitat for
\ngray whales is the surface of the ocean near the coastline, but they dive
\nto the bottom for food. Gray whales migrate approximately 12,500 miles each
\nyear, beginning in the Arctic Ocean (northwest of Alaska in the Chukchi
\nSea), and ending off of the Baja Peninsula of Mexico. Throughout the whole
\njourney the gray whales stay near the coast. The whales feed in the cold
\nwater and in the warmer water calving and mating take place. <\/font><\/p>\n

Mature females give birth every
\nother year in the warm water off of the Baja Peninsula. Ten seconds after
\nits birth the calf instinctively swims to the surface (with much help from
\nits mother) for its first breath. After as long as 30 minutes the baby whale
\ncan swim without assistance. A newborn gray whale is usually about 15 feet
\nlong and weighs about 1-1.5 ton, but like with humans, this can vary. Twins
\nare extremely rare and only one out of every hundred births is twins. A
\ncalf can consume up to 50-80 pounds of its mother’s fatty milk per day,
\nand is weaned at the age of 7-8 months after its birth. Gray whales reach
\nmaturity at 8 years and the growth stops when the whale is 40. Gray whales
\ntypically live to be between 50 and 60 years old. <\/font><\/p>\n

The biggest predators of gray
\nwhales are killer whales. The gray whales are much larger than the killer
\nwhales and the killer whales have to team up to take down a full-grown gray
\nwhale. Large sharks may prey on gray whales but they tend to target the
\ngray whales that are injured, ill or young. The small cookie cutter sharks,
\nwhich are only about 38cm, are also threats to the lives of gray whales.
\nUsing suction, they attach themselves to the whales, and then they carve
\nout a core of flesh with their large triangular teeth. Humans are also dangerous
\nto gray whales. <\/font><\/p>\n

The gray whale has many parasites,
\nand their bodies are covered with hundreds of pounds of barnacles and whale
\nlice. Interestingly enough, little or no parasites are found on the right
\nside of the whales because of the way that it rubs against the ocean floor
\nwhile feeding. Skin parasites attach themselves to the head area, back,
\nand blowhole area also.<\/font><\/p>\n

I have really enjoyed learning
\nmore about the gray whale, I think that they are stunning creatures and
\nI hope that this paper will inspire readers to appreciate them more fully,
\nas I have through doing this research. <\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Corinne Daniel Gray Whale (Eschrictius robustus) The gray […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9107,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template_8.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/79"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/79\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9108,"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/79\/revisions\/9108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}