Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robustus) near Vancouver

Observation: A gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) was spotted from the airplane window just after takeoff on Friday, March 10th, 2017, at 2:30 pm, just to the west of the south runway of the Vancouver International Airport. It was identifyable due to it's distinctive "gray patches and white mottling on its dark skin" American Cetacean Society. Gray whales have been absent from the Strait of Georgia, and particularly from the waters around the city of Vancouver, for many decades after whaling decimated their populations in the 1850s and the early 1900s. Since then they have made a remarkable recovery, but stranglers have only just recently begun to arrive around Vancouver since 2007 or so. This shallow delta-sediment area just to the west of the Vancouver International Airport may be a productive area for feeding. Gray whales feed on the bottom by sucking up mud and seafloor organisms and using their very course baleen to strain the benthic invertebrates from the mud. - Tom Okey, Ocean Integrity Research and University of Victoria.