Aggressive when their calves are threatened, pretty docile otherwise (who could blame them?).
Famous for their breaching.
This is the type of whale that made world news when 3 individuals became trapped in pack-ice in the Bering Straits in the winter of 1988. Russian icebreakers were called on to carve a path to the whales, but the job was so difficult and took so long that one of the whales seemed to give up, and died, sinking quietly to the sea floor.
Even when the path was complete, the two re-maining whales hesitated to escape, but an enter-prising Russian seaman on the vessel suggested playing classical music. To everyone's surprise, the trick worked, and the whales were lured to the safety of open waters.
Thanks, team!
The Atlantic stock of Grays was completely wiped out by whalers around 1725. The West Pac-ific stock was virtually wiped out by the Japan-ese and the Koreans, respectively, in 1914 and 1933. In 1983, Russian biologists spotted about 20 near Korea.
Whaling has been banned against California Grays since 1946. The whalers had even been hunting in the whales' breeding grounds around Baja California! Charles Scammon, a notorious early whaler, would wait in the breeding grounds of Baja, and slaughter whales as they birthed.
The population is only what it is today because of protection, elsewise the whalers would have greedily wiped them out, too.
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50-60 yrs.
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Eschrichtius robustus
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45 ft.
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30 tons
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California gray, devilfish, grayback, ripsack, hardhead scrag
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Eschrichtiidae
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15,000
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krill, bottom-dwelling tube worms, isopods, etc.
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1.2-2.5 2.5-6 10-11
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Bushy plume, 13 ft. high, can be heard 1/2 mile away