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Gray Whale: Eschrichtiidae

Physical Characteristics, Diet, Behavior And Reproduction, Gray Whales And People, Conservation StatusGEOGRAPHIC RANGE, HABITAT



Gray whales migrate between northwest Alaska in the Chukchi Sea, where they live during the summer, and the Baja Peninsula of Mexico, where they live during the winter. A few individual gray whales live year-round in the Straits of Juan de Fuca, located between the state of Washington and Vancouver Island, Canada, and off the coast of California. Most whales, however, make the 10,000-mile (16,000-kilometer) trip from Mexico to the Arctic yearly.



Gray whales prefer shallow coastal water but dive to the ocean floor to feed. Every year gray whales spend two to three months migrating 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) from their summer home in Alaska to the warmer coastal waters off of the Baja Peninsula, Mexico, where they stay all winter.

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Animal Life ResourceMammals