Amazing grays
The gray whales are heading south to Baja California and passing our coast on their way to warmer Mexican waters and birthing grounds. The migration is one of the longest for any mammal.
Basics
Gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus)
Weight: 80,000 pounds
Lifespan: Unknown, believed to be as long as 80 years.
Gray whales migrate about 12,500 miles round trip from Alaska to Mexico. Some have been tracked for more than 14,000 miles.Migration pattern
Gray whales can be seen passing by California in December and January during their southern migration, and again between mid-February and early May on their journey north.
In December, gray whales begin to arrive at Baja lagoons where the females give birth. Throughout February and March, the males and females without calves begin to depart Baja and head north to cooler waters in Alaska. The whales spend the summer in the cool feeding grounds of the north.
The pregnant mothers and females nursing newborn calves are the last to head north in March to mid-April.
The gray whale’s predictable migration made them easy prey for whalers, and its species in the Atlantic Ocean was wiped out. Gray whales have been protected by the International Whaling Commission since 1946 and were taken off the U.S. Endangered Species List in 1994.
Abundance estimates
Once common throughout the Northern Hemisphere, the gray whale became extinct in the Atlantic by the early 1700s, though NOAA reported one sighting in the Mediterranean Sea in 2010. The gray whale population is estimated to be 14,500 in 2023. Which is down from the 2016 estimate of nearly 27,000.
Calves: The most recent count estimated 412 females swam north with calves in 2023, up from 217 in 2022.
You can learn more about how they are counted and the latest figures at the NOAA website here.
Sources: “Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises” by Mark Carwardine; “The Whale Watcher’s Handbook” by Erich Hoyt; The American Cetacean Society; “Field Guide to the Gray Whale” by Ocean Society; Doheny State Beach Interpretive Center; NOAA
