Right around the winter solstice, we see the first wave of the southbound
gray whale migration passing our shores from their Arctic feeding grounds to
their Mexican breeding grounds. The Eastern Pacific stock of this species
will travel nearly 12,000 miles round-trip, returning north in the spring.

In the 1940's, at the end of whaling, gray whale numbers had plummeted to
perhaps only 3,500 animals worldwide. No one knows how large the pre-whaling
population was, but researchers at Stanford University now suggest they may
have once numbered over 100,000.

With legal protections their numbers rebounded until in 1994, when their
population reached approximately 20,000, and they were removed altogether
from the Endangered Species List. Their numbers climbed to around 26,600 in
1999.

For more of this article go to:

http://www.farallones.org/e_newsletter/2009-01/Grey.htm