If you are as lucky as this photographer, you might just catch a glimpse of this mega mammal in the Arctic waters. One of the three baleen whale families, grey whales belong to the eschrichtidae family.

Baleen plates, which characterise these kinds of whales, are horny plates that are suspended from the roof of the whale?s mouth. These plates help filter out tonnes and tonnes of krill from the sea. And then with its tongue, the whale moves its food from the baleen towards the back of its mouth for it to be swallowed. From the photograph, it?s hard to say how large it really is, but it can grow to a size of 12 to 15m.

Every winter, when food becomes scarce, they travel or migrate to southern waters, covering almost 20,000 km.!

When it is breeding time, males gather at breeding grounds and perform ?courtship rituals?. There is an additional male for every breeding pair i.e. the second male lies in attendance and apparently supports her! After a 12-month gestation period, the female gives birth to a young one, who travels with the mother northwards.