Gray Whale

The Gray Whale Annual Cycle
Teaching Suggestions

Overview
Each winter in the warm waters of Mexico, gray whales give birth, nurse their calves, rest and play before their monumental journey north in spring. They swim 5,000 miles along the Pacific coast from Mexico to the Arctic. The trip ends in the nutrient-rich feeding grounds of the Bering Sea in Alaska to feed. In fall, they travel back to Mexico again to complete a round trip annual journey of 10,000 miles. Gray whales migrate farther than any mammal on Earth.
Newborn gray whale baby and mother Tourists watch baby gray whale in San Ignacio Lagoon. Playful calf with mother gray whale
Image: Keith Jones
January		 Image: Caroline Armon
February		 Image: Caroline Armon
March
Eye of a baby gray whale Blows from gray whale mom and baby Spyhopping gray whale
Image: Adrienne DeLiso
April
 Image: Adrienne DeLiso
May		 Image: Adrienne DeLiso
June
Gray whale Gray whale fluke Baleen
Image: Jane Duden
July
 Image: Keith Jones
August		 Image: Renee Bonner
September
Aerial view of gray whale in the Arctic Gray whale heart-shaped blow Gray whale pectoral fin
Image: Kate Wynne, PhD
October
Image: Michael H. Smith
November		 Image: Keith Jones
December

 

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February January March