Food & Feeding

--- gray whales (like all baleen whales) are seasonal feeders and carnivores
--- they are bottom feeders (benthic feeders)
--- they sieve through the mud on the bottom of the ocean floor of the arctic with their baleen
--- they filters out small crustaceans (1/2 inch (1.2 cm) long shrimp-like crustaceans called
       amphipods, krill, copepods, etc.), plankton, and mollusks (including squid and fish) from the
       ocean sediment
--- they usually feed on their right side, sucking up mouthfuls of mud filled with organic matter
--- their baleen filters out the nourishing organic material (mostly amphipods), and the whale
       spits out the mud
--- the tongue loosens the amphipods (and other tiny food) from the baleen plates and the whale
      swallows the food
--- during migration and while in the warm breeding waters (about 3-5 months), gray whales eat
       very little
--- they live off their thick layer of blubber (fat)

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