Do Barnacles Hurt Whales?

Those patchy white spots you see on gray whales

are barnacles. ... They don't harm the whales or feed on the whales, like true parasites do. Barnacles don't serve any obvious advantage to the whales, but they give helpful lice a place to hang onto the whale without getting washed away by water.

Do whales try to remove barnacles?

Barnacles stay on gray whales for as long as they are alive. Barnacles depigment the skin when they attach themselves to the whale. ... To get rid of the whale lice, whales rub themselves along the sea bottom or breach. Gray whales feed on bottom sediments and scrape off barnacles and whale lice as they feed.

Are barnacles itchy for whales?

In any event, no one knows whether barnacles can produce itch." ... The slightly pink coloration around the barnacles indicates the presence of whale lice. They feed on dead skin and clean wounds that might afflict their whale host, so their presence in reasonable numbers seems to benefit their hosts.