Gray whale

The gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus), also spelled as the grey whale and also known as the gray back whale, Pacific gray whale, or the California gray whale, is a species of baleen whale native to the North Pacific ocean. They migrate between feeding and breeding grounds yearly. It reaches a length of 14.9 meters and weighs up to 41 tonnes, and lives around 55 to 70 years. Its common name comes from the gray patches and white mottling on its dark gray skin. It is the only living species in the genus, Eschrichtius, and is thought to be the only living member of the family, Eschrichtiidae, though later, recent evidence classifies the gray whale and the extinct members in the family, Balaenopteridae. It was descended from filter-feeding whales that first appeared during the Neogene. The gray whale is extirpated in the North Atlantic, most likely due to whaling, despite this, there are many vagrant sightings of a gray whale in the Atlantic, such as the Mediterranean Sea and even the South Atlantic.