Drone footage of gray whales captured over seven years off the Oregon coast has revealed new details about how the giant marine mammals find and eat food.
The findings, described in two studies published over the summer, include that gray whales rely on different swimming techniques to collect food based on their size and age, and that larger whales are more likely to exhale “bubble blasts” to help them stay underwater.
“Before this study, we thought that any whale used any of those behaviors,” said Clara Bird, the lead author of both studies and a researcher at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute. “No one really thought that there was a pattern in who used which behavior.”
Bird’s research also found that whales use different eating techniques based on the depth of the water in which they search for meals and the habitat of their prey. Such information could aid future conservation efforts, she said, because it provides insight into the types of habitats that might need to be protected in order to preserve the whales’ access to food.
“While right now we’re not actively trying to protect specific habitats, it’s really important to know that whales of different ages might not be all using the same habitat for future concerns,” Bird said. “It’ll help us manage them moving forward.”

A segment of the gray whale population is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The entire species once faced a risk of extinction due to commercial hunting. Once common across the Northern Hemisphere, gray whales are now regularly seen only in the North Pacific. Just under 27,000 of them were estimated to be in the area as of 2016, according to a 2020 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The whales eat amphipod crustaceans like tiny shrimp and worms, which they consume by sucking up water and sediment from the seafloor, where such creatures live, then using their baleen to filter the food. Gray whales are typically observed alone or in small groups, though large groups may be seen at feeding or breeding grounds.
Bird and her team conducted their research off the coast of Newport. On sailing trips over seven years, the group tracked and recorded individual whales via drones. They identified particular whales using distinguishing markers like scars, spots or tail shape.