SPITSBERGEN BOWHEAD WHALES REVISITED OYSTEIN WlIG

摘要

Bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) are endemic to arctic and subarctic regions of the Atlantic Ocean, and the Bering, Beaufort, Chukchi, and Okhotsk seas (Moore and Reeves 1993) and often live in close association with the sea-ice edge. Five geographically separated stocks are currently recognized: (1) the Bering/Chukchi/Beaufort Seas stock, (2) the Okhotsk Sea stock, (3) the Davis Strait stock, (4) the Hudson Bay stock, and (5) the Spitsbergen stock distributed in the Greenland, Barents, and Kara seas. Exploitation over several centuries dramatically reduced the population size of this once abundant species (Woodby and Botkin 1993). Commercial hunting of bowhead whales commenced in the early 1600s in the North Atlantic region around Svalbard and spread out into other regions when this stock became depleted. The pre-exploitation population size of the Spitsbergen stock has been estimated to be between 25,000 and more than 100,000 individuals (Allen and Keay 2006). After cessation of the hunt, bowhead whales around Svalbard were considered to be extinct (JonsgArd 1981). Today, the Spitsbergen stock of bowhead whales is believed to number in the tens (Christensen et al. 1992) and is considered critically endangered by the IUCN (Cetacean SpecialistGroup 2006). Systematic surveys for monitoring the Spitsbergen stock have never been conducted. Here, we report results from a survey for bowhead whales in the North Atlantic along the ice edge between Svalbard and Greenland in April 2006.