What are baleen plates?
A. Baleen whales have a series of 130-180 fringed, overlapping baleen plates hanging like curtains from each side of the upper jaw where teeth might otherwise be found. Baleen is made of a fingernail-like material called keratin. The plates are off-white and about 2-10 inches (5-25 cm) long. Like giant combs, baleen plates filter water out and trap food in. Q. How fast do gray whales travel during migration? A. Grays cover nearly 100 miles (161 km) a day. They can travel from Unimak Pass in Alaska to Baja California in an average of 55 days. They swim at slightly slower speeds on their journeys north. Q. Do all gray whales migrate? A. Not all. Some individual gray whales are found year round on the coasts of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California. The rest migrate from the arctic to the Baja California Mexico coast. Q. When do gray whales make their yearly migration? A. In October, the whales begin to leave their feeding grounds in the Bering and Chukchi Seas. They swim s
