Final Recovery Plan for the Sei Whale (Balaenoptera borealis)

摘要

Sei whales, Balaenoptera borealis, are widely distributed in the world's oceans. The sei whale has been listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) since its passage in 1973. Most populations of sei whales were reduced, some of them considerably, by extensive commercial whaling in the 1950s through the early 1970s. They were hunted by modern whalers primarily after the preferred larger or more easily taken baleen whale species had been seriously depleted, including the right (Eubalaena spp.), humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae), gray (Eschrichtius robustus), blue (Balaenoptera musculus), and fin (Balaenoptera physalus) whales. International protection for sei whales only began in the 1970s, but the taking of sei whales has continued at relatively low levels by Icelandic and Japanese operations. Of the commercially exploited great whales, the sei whale is one of the least studied, and the current status of most sei whale stocks is poorly known.