Editing Gray whale (section)

====Eastern Pacific population====
[[Image:Anim1723 - Flickr - NOAA Photo Library.jpg|thumb|A gray whale breaching in a lagoon on the coast of Mexico]]
Each October, as the northern ice pushes southward, small groups of eastern gray whales in the eastern Pacific start a two- to three-month, {{convert|8000|-|11000|km|mi|abbr=on}} trip south. Beginning in the [[Bering Sea|Bering]] and [[Chukchi Sea|Chukchi]] seas and ending in the warm-water [[lagoon]]s of Mexico's [[Baja California Peninsula]] and the southern [[Gulf of California]], they travel along the west coast of Canada, the United States and Mexico.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pike |first1=Gordon C. |title=Migration and Feeding of the Gray Whale (''Eschrichtius gibbosus'') |journal=Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada |date=1 May 1962 |volume=19 |issue=5 |pages=815–838 |doi=10.1139/f62-051 }}</ref>

Traveling night and day, the gray whale averages approximately {{convert|120|km|mi|abbr=on}} per day at an average speed of {{convert|8|km/h|mph|abbr=on|0}}. This round trip of {{convert|16000|-|22000|km|abbr=on}} is believed to be the longest annual migration of any [[mammal]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-10-18 |title=Map of the Gray Whale Migration - Baja Ecotours |url=https://www.bajaecotours.com/map-of-the-gray-whale-migration/ |access-date=2024-11-22 |language=en-US}}</ref> By mid-December to early January, the majority are usually found between [[Monterey, California|Monterey]] and [[San Diego, California|San Diego]] such as at [[Morro Bay State Marine Recreational Management Area and Morro Bay State Marine Reserve|Morro bay]], often visible from shore.<ref name=Swartz2018/> The [[whale watching]] industry provides [[ecotourism|ecotourists]] and [[marine mammal]] enthusiasts the opportunity to see groups of gray whales as they migrate.

By late December to early January, eastern grays begin to arrive in the calving lagoons and bays on the west coast of [[Baja California Sur]]. The three most popular are [[San Ignacio Lagoon|San Ignacio]], [[Magdalena Bay]] to the south, and, to the north, [[Laguna Ojo de Liebre]] (formerly known in English as Scammon's Lagoon after whaleman [[Charles Melville Scammon]], who discovered the lagoons in the 1850s and hunted the grays).<ref>{{cite web|title=Recovery of the Gray Whale|author=Davis, T.N.|url=http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF3/339.html|publisher=Alaska Science Forum|date=1979-09-06|access-date=2009-01-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212080641/http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF3/339.html|archive-date=2009-02-12|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Baja Legends|author=Niemann, G.|pages=171–173|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=35WQOduN1F4C&pg=PA171|year=2002|publisher=Sunbelt Publications|isbn=0-932653-47-2}}</ref>

Gray whales once ranged into [[Sea of Cortez]] and Pacific coasts of continental Mexico south to the [[Islas Marías]], [[Bahía de Banderas]], and [[Nayarit]]/[[Jalisco]], and there were two modern calving grounds in [[Sonora]] ([[Tojahui]] or [[Yavaros]]) and [[Sinaloa]] ([[Bahia Santa Maria]], Bahia Navachiste, La Reforma, Bahia Altata) until being abandoned in the 1980s.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Findley|first1= T.L.|last2= Vidal|first2= O.|year= 2002|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285118962|title= Gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) at calving sites in the Gulf of California, México|journal= Journal of Cetacean Research and Management|volume =4|issue=1|pages=27–40}}</ref><ref>Mark Carwardine, 2019, 
Bloomsbury Publishing, Handbook of Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises, p.80</ref>

These first whales to arrive are usually pregnant mothers looking for the protection of the lagoons to bear their calves, along with single females seeking mates. By mid-February to mid-March, the bulk of the population has arrived in the lagoons, filling them with nursing, calving and mating gray whales.

Throughout February and March, the first to leave the lagoons are males and females without new calves. Pregnant females and nursing mothers with their newborns are the last to depart, leaving only when their calves are ready for the journey, which is usually from late March to mid-April. Often, a few mothers linger with their young calves well into May. Whale watching in Baja's lagoons is  particularly popular because the whales often come close enough to boats for tourists to pet them.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Koontz |first=Kathi |date=2016-03-24 |title=Close Encounters With Baja’s Gray Whales |url=https://www.oceanicsociety.org/trip-reports/close-encounters-with-bajas-gray-whales/ |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=Oceanic Society |language=en-US}}</ref>

By late March or early April, the returning animals can be seen from [[Puget Sound]] to Canada.

=====Resident groups=====
[[Image:Eschrichtius robustus Nootka 1.jpg|thumb|A gray whale swims near surf on [[Nootka Island]] within residential range.]]
A population of about 200 gray whales stay along the eastern Pacific coast from Canada to California throughout the summer, not making the farther trip to Alaskan waters. This summer resident group is known as the Pacific Coast feeding group.<ref>{{cite web|title=Demographic distinctness of the Pacific Coast Feeding Group of Gray Whales (''Eschrictius robustus'')|author=Lang, A.|url=http://swfsc.noaa.gov/textblock.aspx?Division=PRD&ParentMenuId=229&id=16955|publisher=NOAA Fisheries Service, Protected Resource Division, Southwest Fisheries Science Center|date=January 19, 2011|access-date=2011-02-25}}</ref>

Any historical or current presence of similar groups of residents among the western population is currently unknown, however, whalers' logbooks and scientific observations indicate that possible year-round occurrences in Chinese waters and Yellow and Bohai basins were likely to be summering grounds.<ref name=GrayArea /><ref name=hkd2005 /> Some of the better documented historical catches show that it was common for whales to stay for months in enclosed waters elsewhere, with known records in the [[Seto Inland Sea]]<ref name="shikoku-np.co.jp" /> and the Gulf of Tosa. Former feeding areas were once spread over large portions on mid-Honshu to northern Hokkaido, and at least whales were recorded for majority of annual seasons including wintering periods at least along east coasts of [[Korean Peninsula]] and [[Yamaguchi Prefecture]].<ref name=hkd2005 /> Some recent observations indicate that historic presences of resident whales are possible: a group of two or three were observed feeding in [[Izu Ōshima]] in 1994 for almost a month,<ref name=Nakamura12>{{cite web|author=Suitube|year=2012|title=中村宏治 コククジラ撮影秘話！|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrUcUmQSufE| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211118/YrUcUmQSufE| archive-date=2021-11-18 | url-status=live|publisher=Japan Underwater Films|page=[[YouTube]]|access-date=2015-01-07}}{{cbignore}}</ref> two single individuals stayed in [[Ise Bay]] for almost two months in the 1980s and in 2012, the first confirmed living individuals in Japanese [[EEZ]] in the Sea of Japan and the first of living cow-calf pairs since the end of whaling stayed for about three weeks on the coastline of [[Teradomari]] in 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shikoku-np.co.jp/national/science_environmental/photo.aspx?id=20120417000459&no=1|title=コククジラが三河湾を回遊／絶滅恐れ、３月に１頭|work=四国新聞社|access-date=14 May 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://1topi.jp/curator/Makoto_Ninomiya/1303/05/104995 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140424094446/http://1topi.jp/curator/Makoto_Ninomiya/1303/05/104995 |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 April 2014 |title=サービス終了のお知らせ |access-date=14 May 2015 }}</ref> One of the pair returned to the same coasts at the same time of the year in 2015 again.<ref name=Niigata2015 /> Reviewing on other cases on different locations among Japanese coasts and islands observed during 2015 indicate that spatial or seasonal residencies regardless of being temporal or permanental staying once occurred throughout many parts of Japan or on other coastal Asia.<ref name=2015Rematch />