Annotated Bibliography of the Bowhead Whale, 'Balaena mysticetus', 1767-1983.

摘要

The bowhead wale, Balaena mysticetus, is now an endangered species following an intensive commercial fishery for this cetacean for about 300 years, first in the North Atlantic Arctic from 1610 to 1910, then in the North Pacific Arctic from 1848 to 1910. The intensive annual hunt by hundreds of whaling vessels reduced the estimated residual bowhead population in the North Atlantic Ocean to a few hundred animals and that in the North Pacific Ocean to one or two thousand. Because of the precarious status of the bowhead, beginning in 1972 the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) expressed concern about the lack of information on the status of the western Arctic bowhead, especially because of the continuing annual harvest by Alaskan Eskimos subsistence and cultural purposes. The IWC was specifically concerned by the lack of information on population abundance, on the size of and trends in the subsistence harvest, and on the number of whales which were struck and lost during the hunt. As part of a research program begun in 1973 by the National Marine Mammal Laboratory, an extensive search of the literature was conducted to obtain information needed by scientists studying the natural history and historical record of the shore-based whaling effort and catch for this endangered species. References on commercial whaling also were collected. The results of the literature search are presented here as an annotated bibliography of selected references on the bowhead whale covering the period 1767 to 1983.