natural food of this species of whale. 

 Our captive's habit of sweeping a few 

 centimeters off the smooth tank bot- 

 tom does not deny the probabilits 

 that sweeping a soft or irregular 

 bottom at sea could get mud on the 

 sweeper's back (cf. Fay in Pike, 1962. 

 p. 823), especially if the prey is 

 actually benthic. 



Cetological literature is full of poor- 

 ly supported conjecture, and we hesi- 

 tate to add more. Although we have 

 learned a number of things from the 

 captive Gigi, there is still much un- 

 known. For one thing, her jetting 

 water in pulses from a particular re- 

 stricted part of her mouth seems to 

 imply, perhaps, a special activity of 

 the tongue. Furthermore, we do not 

 understand the mechanics of the hy- 

 draulics that bring the food-bearing 

 water into the mouth. This is no mys- 

 tery in whales that swim along with 

 the mouth wide open, but it is not so 

 obvious in a whale which swims along 

 rather slowly with only a narrow slit 

 open, as did our Esclirichiius. Here it 

 seems necessary to increase the volume 

 of the mouth to cause useful inflow of 

 water. We are handicapped by our 

 imperfect understanding of the func- 

 tions of the muscular tongue. W. E. 

 Evans (pers. comm.) has told us that 

 Gigi's tongue once pressed his hand 

 painfully hard against her palate. Such 

 pressure might serve to push the gular 

 region downward, enlarging the mouth 

 cavity, and this idea fits with the ob- 

 servations of Donahoo and Ray of 

 the migrating tongue-bulge visible 

 from beneath. 



Thus we suppose, from the assorted 

 evidence, the following concatenation 

 of events in feeding; First the whale 

 rolls over far enough so that the cheek 

 is about parallel with the bottom, and 

 the lip is opened as the tongue, press- 

 ing against the palate, pushes the gular 

 region away so that it expands, pro- 

 ducing an inflow which brings in the 

 epibenthic food. Then the tongue 

 rcla.xes and the gular musculature 

 tightens, reducing the size of the 

 mouth cavity and expelling water; 

 the food IS trapped in the baleen 



fringes. We do not know exactl> what 

 happens next; perhaps a slight re- 

 newed suction of water removes the 

 food from the baleen fringes, and 

 swallowing presumably follows. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Andrews. R. C. 1^*14, Monographs of the 



Pacific cetacea. I. The California gray 



whale {RInuhtanccU's tiUmcita Cope). 



Mem. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. (New Series) 



1:2:7-287. 

 Gilmore, R. M. 1961. The story of the 



gray whale. 2ncJ ed. Privately published. 



San Diego. 17 p. 

 Howell, A. B., and L. M. Huey. 1930. Food 



of the gray and other whales. J. Mammal. 



11:321-322. 

 Kasuya, T., and D. W. Rice. 1970. Notes 



on baleen plates and on arrangement of 



parasitic barnacles of gray whale. Sci. 

 Rep. Whales Res. Inst. 22:39-43. 



Nemoto, T. 19?9. Food of baleen whales 

 with reference to whale movements. Sci. 

 Rep. Whales Res. Inst. 14: 149-290. 



Pike. G. C. 1962. Migration and feeding 

 of the gray whale {E.\chruhiiiis nihhusiis). 

 J. Fish. Res. Board Can. 19:815-838. 



Rice. D. W., and A. A. Wolman. 1971. 

 The life history and ecology of the gray 

 whale (E.schnchtius nihusius). Am. Soc. 

 Mammal.. Spec. Publ. No. 3. 142 p., 18 

 tables. 38 text figs. 



Tomilin, A. G. 1957. Kitoobraznye. Zveri 

 SSSR i prilezhashchikh stran (Cetacea. 

 Mammals of the USSR and adjacent coun- 

 tries.) 9. 756 p. (Engl, transl. Smithson. 

 Inst., 1967.9,717 p.) 



Zimushko. V. V., and S. A. Lenskaya. 1970. 

 O pitanii serogo kila (Eschrichinis gib- 

 hosiis Erx.) na mestakh nagula (Feeding 

 of the gray whale [E.schnclunis nihhosiis 

 Erx.) at foraging grounds). Fkologiya 

 Akad. Nauk SSSR l(3):26-35. (Engl, 

 transl.. Consultants Bureau. Plenum Publ. 

 Corp., 1971. Fkologiya 1(3):205-212.) 



MFR Paper 1053. From Marine Fisheries Review, Vol. 

 36, No. 4, April 1974. Copies of this paper, in limited 

 numbers, are available from D83. Technical Information 

 Division. Environmental Science Information Center. 

 NCAA. Washington. DC 20235. 



MFR PAPER 1054 



Sounds Produced by the Gray Whale, 

 Eschrichtius robustus 



JAMES F. FISH, JAMES L SUMICH, antj GEORGE L. LINGLE 



ABSTRACT 



U ndcrwawr \iiuihIs pnuliKcil hy a yniiiii; cupiivc yn/y uluilc arc described. 

 A "iucudUc-\t>it}idiiii> pulsed signal." consisliiiii of H lo 14 pulses in hursts Uisliui; 

 up Id 2 sec was the niosl c<>nuiu>n vocalization. Other souitds included a low- 

 frequency "i;ro\\l" or "moan." similar lo a sound recorded from L;ray w/iales at 

 sea: a short, hroiulhand. "i;riinllike" sound: a low-piit hed "hlowluile rumble": 

 aiul a loui; "ntctaUic-souiuliui; pulse train" tlial meiiicd into a low-frequency 

 "Kroan." The sounds ctnild not be correlaled with specific behaviors. Also de- 

 scribed are "clicks" recorded in the presence of the whale wlien site was returned 

 to \ea ami similar "iliiks" recorded from i;ray whales in liii kaninnish Bay. 

 I'ancoin er Island. Caitoila. 



This report describes a variets of 

 sounds recorded from Gigi, a young 

 gray whale. Eschrichtius robustus. 

 while she was in captivity at Sea 

 World, a marine park in San Diego, 

 Calif., and sounds recorded in the 



vicinits of the whale when she was 

 returned to the ocean nearly a year 

 later. Also described are the sounds 

 recorded in the presence of gray 

 whales in Wickaninnish Bay, Van- 

 couver Island. Canada. 



38 



