Grey Whale Eschrichtius robustus
Grey Whale, off Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada, May 2009 - click for larger image Off Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada
May 2009

The Grey Whale is distributed mainly in the north-west Pacific where it seasonally migrates from Baja California to the Bering Sea. There is a very small population in the western Pacific while the north Atlantic population was made extinct through whaling in the early 18th century. Surprisingly a Grey Whale was spotted in the Mediterranean during the summer of 2010.
Grey Whale, off Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada, May 2009 - click for larger image It is a baleen whale and a bottom feeder. You don't really want to be downwind of one when it blows.

It has a grey, marbled body and the adults usually have lots of barnacles and small crustaceans forming a crust on the skin of the head. It has two blowholes.
Grey Whale, off Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada, May 2009 - click for larger image It does not have a dorsal fin but it does have a hump and a series of "knuckles" which can be seen usually as it prepares to dive as in photo 4.

There is more information available on Wikipedia.
Grey Whale, off Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada, May 2009 - click for larger image
Previous Page Back to Index Next Page

If you do not see a menu on the left, you may have arrived at this page from another site. Please click Home to get to my main page.
Fatbirder's Top 1000 Birding Websites