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Like all mysticetes, gray whales have no teeth. Instead, along their upper jaws is baleen-- long, tightly connected broom-like plates that filter the whale’s food from the water and other material ingested during feeding. These plates are made of keratin, a protein, fingernail-like material that is tough but pliable and used years ago in the manufacture of such items as corset and umbrella stays and riding crops. Gray whales have fewer baleen plates than other mysticetes, and the baleen ends in grays are more coarse and bristly than in most other baleen whales.
Baleen whales are generally much larger than their toothed counterparts in the cetacean suborder, Odontoceti. The reason? The baleen. The evolution of baleen made it possible for these whales to become bulk feeders or, as Lawrence Barnes says, it gave baleens “efficiency of food catching.” Barnes is curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.
Gray whales are huge, though they are smaller than blue and sperm whales. Male gray whales are smaller than females, averaging 42’ in length. Females can grow up to 50’ and weigh as much as 35-40 tons. Newborns are typically 12-15’ long and may weigh 3000 lbs or more. Calves grow fast, 50 lbs a day or more.
Gray whales are mottled gray with patches of white. As the Smithsonian's James Mead explains, “Gray whales are heavily infested with barnacles and whale lice. This, coupled with their coarsely mottled pigmentation, is one of the species’ most distinctive traits.” Other whales are sufficiently infested to be confused with grays, he says, referring to right and humpback whales. However, whereas infestation is confined to the head in right whales and to the head, genitals and flippers in humpbacks, grays are infested all over their bodies. “Even calves, within a few days of their birth, acquire these parasites that live in indentations or creases on the whale’s body…” These parasites create rough spots on the whale but pose no harm.
Gray whales have a streamlined body with a tapered head. The arched upper jaw (rostrum) slightly overlaps the lower jaw. The gray’s throat has four 1 ½ meter-long ventral grooves, fewer than other baleens. It is not certain what role these grooves play, but it has been postulated they help the whale in feeding.
The gray whale has no dorsal fin, but two-thirds of the way back on its body is a prominent dorsal hump followed by 6-12 knuckles along the dorsal ridge which extends to the tail (flukes). The flukes are deeply notched at the center and on a mature gray may be 10’ across or longer. The flipper resembles a paddle and for the size of the animal, it is relatively small.
The tongues of gray whales may be up to 6’ long. As with dogs, according to Sheyna Wisdom, gray whale tongues regulate body temperature by directing heat to the rest of the body. This role is particularly effective in the cold waters of the Arctic. The normal body temperature of gray whales is identical to that of humans, 98.6°. Gray whales have two blow holes.
Gray whales are not especially vocal. They are noisiest in the lagoons when they are mating, according to URS Corporation senior noise analyst and biologist Sheyna Wisdom, who studies the impact of man-made noises on marine life. Grays emit staccato low-frequency drum-like sounds similar to the sound of conga drums. How they make these sounds is not well known. Grays do not generally vocalize when migrating.
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