Some of the first whale watching tours ever to have been offered focused on gray whales along the coast of southern California. Found close to shore, and often curious around boats, the species is well-loved by whale watchers up and down the west coasts of Canada, the United States and Mexico. Here, in the eastern part of its range, the species seems to have recovered after protection from whaling. However, the western gray whale subpopulation that feeds near Russia’s Sakhalin Island and Kamchatka Peninsula in the eastern Pacific is one of the smallest whale populations in the world.
Gray whale surfacing and dive pattern
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