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North Pacific right whale (Eubalaena japonica) sightings in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea during IWC-Pacific Ocean Whale and Ecosystem Research (IWC-POWER) surveys
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2021
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Source: Marine Mammal Science, 1â 13
[PDF-1.53 MB]
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Journal Title:Marine Mammal Science
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Description:The North Pacific right whale (hereafter NPRW), Eubalaena japonica, is currently divided into two populations, eastern and western (Brownell et al., 2001). Although once widely distributed throughout the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska (hereafter GoA), both populations were targeted by extensive whaling in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with an estimated 27,000-35,000 whales taken in two decades (1840-1860) (Clapham et al., 2004; Josephson et al., 2008; Omura, 1958; Scarff, 2001). Despite being internationally protected starting in 1935, both populations became the target of illegal Soviet whaling in the 1960s, with over 700 whales estimated to have been taken in the eastern North Pacific between 1962 and 1968 (Ivashchenko & Clapham 2012; Ivashchenko et al., 2017). North Pacific right whales have been listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act since its inception in 1973 (U.S. Government, 1983). Consequently, NOAA established federally designated areas of Critical Habitat for the eastern population in the southeastern Bering Sea and northern GoA (south of Kodiak Island) in 2006 (Figure 1). Today, the eastern population, which is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN (Cooke and Clapham, 2018), is estimated at approximately 30 individuals, with an estimated 2:1 male-to-female sex ratio (Wade et al., 2011b).
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Source:Marine Mammal Science, 1â 13
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Rights Information:Accepted Manuscript
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