What is "gray whale"

Gray whale \Gray whale\ (Zo["o]l.), a rather large and swift baleen whale of the northern Pacific ( Eschrichtius robustus, formerly Rhachianectes glaucus), having short jaws and no dorsal fin; -- called also grayback, devilfish, and hardhead. It grows to a length of 50 feet (sometimes 60 feet). It was formerly taken in large numbers in the bays of California, and is now rare. It lives up to 50 or 60 years and adults weigh from 20 to 40 tons.

Gray \Gray\ (gr[=a]), a. [Compar. Grayer; superl. Grayest.] [OE. gray, grey, AS. gr[=ae]g, gr[=e]g; akin to D. graauw, OHG. gr[=a]o, G. grau, Dan. graa, Sw. gr[*a], Icel. gr[=a]r.]

1. any color of neutral hue between white and black; white mixed with black, as the color of pepper and salt, or of ashes, or of hair whitened by age; sometimes, a dark mixed color; as, the soft gray eye of a dove.

   These gray and dun colors may be also produced by mixing whites and blacks.
   --Sir I. Newton.

2. Gray-haired; gray-headed; of a gray color; hoary.

3. Old; mature; as, gray experience. -- Ames.

4. gloomy; dismal.

   Gray antimony (Min.), stibnite.

   Gray buck (Zo["o]l.), the chickara.

   Gray cobalt (Min.), smaltite.

   Gray copper (Min.), tetrahedrite.

   Gray duck (Zo["o]l.), the gadwall; also applied to the female mallard.

   Gray falcon (Zo["o]l.) the peregrine falcon.

   Gray Friar. See Franciscan, and Friar.

   Gray hen (Zo["o]l.), the female of the blackcock or black grouse. See Heath grouse.

   Gray mill or Gray millet (Bot.), a name of several plants of the genus Lithospermum; gromwell.

   Gray mullet (Zo["o]l.) any one of the numerous species of the genus Mugil, or family Mugilid[ae], found both in the Old World and America; as the European species ( Mugilid[ae] capito, and Mugilid[ae] auratus), the American striped mullet ( Mugilid[ae] albula), and the white or silver mullet ( Mugilid[ae] Braziliensis). See Mullet.

   Gray owl (Zo["o]l.), the European tawny or brown owl ( Syrnium aluco). The great gray owl ( Ulula cinerea) inhabits arctic America.

   Gray parrot (Zo["o]l.), an African parrot ( Psittacus erithacus), very commonly domesticated, and noted for its aptness in learning to talk. Also called jako.

   Gray pike. (Zo["o]l.) See Sauger.

   Gray snapper (Zo["o]l.), a Florida fish; the sea lawyer. See Snapper.

   Gray snipe (Zo["o]l.), the dowitcher in winter plumage.

   Gray whale (Zo["o]l.), a rather large and swift whale of the northern Pacific ( Eschrichtius robustus, formerly Rhachianectes glaucus), having short jaws and no dorsal fin. It grows to a length of 50 feet (someimes 60 feet). It was formerly taken in large numbers in the bays of California, and is now rare; -- called also grayback, devilfish, and hardhead. It lives up to 50 or 60 years and adults weigh from 20 to 40 tons.

n. A baleen whale, (taxlink Eschrichtius robustus species noshow=1), from the north Pacific

n. medium-sized grayish-black whale of the northern Pacific [syn: devilfish, Eschrichtius gibbosus, Eschrichtius robustus]

The gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus), also known as the grey whale, gray back whale, Pacific gray whale, or California gray whale is a baleen whale that migrates between feeding and breeding grounds yearly. It reaches a length of , a weight of , and lives between 55 and 70 years. The common name of the whale comes from the gray patches and white mottling on its dark skin. Gray whales were once called devil fish because of their fighting behavior when hunted. The gray whale is the sole living species in the genus Eschrichtius, which in turn is the sole living genus in the family Eschrichtiidae. This mammal descended from filter-feeding whales that appeared at the beginning of the Oligocene, over 30 million years ago.

The gray whale is distributed in an eastern North Pacific (North American) population and a critically endangered western North Pacific (Asian) population. North Atlantic populations were extirpated (perhaps by whaling) on the European coast before 500 AD and on the American coast around the late 17th to early 18th centuries. However, on May 8, 2010, a sighting of a gray whale was confirmed off the coast of Israel in the Mediterranean Sea, leading some scientists to think they might be repopulating old breeding grounds that have not been used for centuries. In May and June 2013 a gray whale was sighted off the coast of Namibia – the first confirmed in the Southern Hemisphere. The round-trip journey of one gray whale has set a new record for the longest mammal migration, covering a distance of more than 22,000 kilometres across the Pacific Ocean. Her migration has shown new insight into how endangered species are making drastic changes in their life style.