Gray whale Gray whale 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
Common minke whale sharks have been found scavenging the blubber thrown overboard during Norwegian minke whaling operations off Svalbard. Great white sharks and blue sharks have also been observed feeding on a minke whale carcass off California. A new species of siboglinid annelid worm, "Osedax mucofloris", was discovered on the carcass of a 5.3 m (17.4 ft) female minke whale experimentally placed at a depth of 125 m (410 ft) in the North Sea. This genus of worm uses endosymbiotic bacteria to feed on the bones of whales that fall to the seafloor. Common minke whales are a host to a number of