1. Species type Name Designation Habitat Two major threats and what conservation efforts Two interesting facts

2. Terminology Endangered -any species which is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range Threatened -any species which is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future Depleted – a species or population stock that is below its optimum sustainable population

3. Protected Marine Species Marine Mammals Marine Turtles Marine and Anadromous Fish (live most of life in sea, breed in fresh water) Marine Invertebrates Marine Plants

4. Gray Whale Domain – Eukaryote Kingdom – Animalia Phylum – Chordata Class – Mammalia Order – Cetacea (Marine mammal with torpedo-shaped body with paddle-shaped forelimbs) Family – Eschrictiidae (grey whales) Genus - Eschrichtius Species - robustus Order: Cetacea

5. Gray Whale Weight:80,000 lb (35,000 kg) Length:50 ft (15 m) long Appearance: mottled gray body, with small eyes; they have a "dorsal hump" (not a dorsal fin) and a series of 8-14 small bumps, known as "knuckles" Lifespan: unknown, but may be as long as 80 years; sexually mature at around 8 years old Diet: bottom feeders, they eat "benthic" amphipods Behavior: traveling alone or in small, unstable groups

6. Gray whales are frequently observed traveling alone or in small, unstable groups, although large aggregations may be seen on feeding and breeding grounds. Gray whales are bottom feeders, and suck sediment and the "benthic" amphipods that are their prey from the sea floor. To do this, they roll on their sides and swim slowly along, filtering their food through coarse baleen plates on each side of the upper jaw. In doing so, they often leave long trails of mud behind them, and "feeding pits" in the sea floor. Click the picture above. http://www.arkive.org/gray-whale/eschrichtius-robustus/video-08a.html

7. Did You Know? Gray whales make one of the longest annual migrations of any mammal: they travel about 10,000 miles (16,000 km) round trip! Gray whales were once called "devil fish" because of their violent reactions when harpooned by whalers. They maimed or killed one out of four who worked the fishery. Gray whales are known for their curiosity toward boats and are the focus of whale watching and ecotourism along the southern portion of their migration. Click on the picture. http://www.arkive.org/gray-whale/eschrichtius-robustus/video-06c.html

8. Gray whales live in the pelagic zone and feed on benthic amphipods.

9. Gray whales are found mainly in shallow coastal waters in the North Pacific Ocean.

10. Endangered/depleted (Western North Pacific population) Threat collisions with vessels entanglement in fishing gear habitat degradation disturbance from ecotourism and whale watching disturbance from low- frequency noise possibility that illegal whaling or resumed legal whaling will remove animals at biologically unsustainable rates. Conservation Efforts Beginning in the mid-1930s, gray whales were protected under a ban on commercial hunting adopted by the League of Nations. The ban on commercial gray whale catches has continued since the late 1940s under the International Whaling Commission. Gray whales are still hunted by native people of Chukotka and Washington State and are subject to catch limits under the International Whaling Commission's "aboriginal subsistence whaling" scheme.