The gray whale is distributed in an eastern North Pacific (North American) population and a critically endangered western North Pacific (Asian) population.

The gray whale was also found in the Atlantic in earlier times but disappeared from the European coast before and on the American coast around the late 17th to early 18th centuries.

However in 2010, a gray whale was sighted off the coast of Israel in the Mediterranean Sea, leading some scientists to think they might be repopulating old breeding grounds that have not been used for centuries.

The whale might have arrived in the odd area by traveling through the Northwest Passage, which has been free of ice for four years straight due to climate change.