GRAY WHALES by David Gordon and...

GRAY WHALES by David Gordon and Alan Baldridge (Monterey Bay Aquarium: $8.95, illustrated). This slim, attractive book provides amateur naturalists with a concise introduction to the largest whale that regularly visits the California coast--its basic biology and habits, and the sorry history of its interaction with man. Each year, it makes a circuit from the warm lagoons of Baja California to the Chukchi Sea off the northern coast of Alaska. Unlike most baleen whales, the gray ( Eschrichtius robustus ) doesn’t feed by skimming the surface of the ocean but gulps mud from shallow sea bottoms and filters out the tiny animals that live in the muck. Some scientists argue that this unusual feeding pattern, combined with its short, coarse baleen, slow swimming speed and lack of a true dorsal fin, suggest that the gray is the most primitive living whale, a conclusion other cetologists dispute. The striking underwater photographs of the whales are supplemented with archival pictures of whalers and whaling stations.