Science Advisory Report 2007/053
Assessment of eastern Arctic bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus)
Summary
- Bowheads in the eastern Arctic are genetically distinct from the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort (B-C-B) population found in the western Arctic.
- Bowhead whales are wide ranging and whales from both Foxe Basin and Baffin Bay regions share common ranges in summer as well as winter.
- Current molecular genetic evidence in conjunction with data from tagged whales does not support the two-stock hypothesis for bowhead whales in the eastern Arctic although there may be age/sex segregation in the population which may have management implications.
- A partial population estimate of 14,400 (95% CI 4,811-43,105) bowheads resulted from a survey of Eclipse Sound, Prince Regent Inlet and Gulf of Boothia in 2002 corrected for diving animals and perception bias. Potential biases in the estimate exist in both directions as a result of small sample size and other factors. Due to the large uncertainties, caution should be used in interpreting the abundance estimate.
- Subsistence harvest at the current level is not a threat to the population.
- Based on calculations of Potential Biological Removal (PBR) and a recovery factor of 0.1 to account for unknown biases or estimation problems, the population can support a human induced mortality of 18 whales annually. This estimate includes all sources of human induced mortality (e.g. harvest, struck and loss, net entanglements, ship collisions).
- A PBR calculation based on a recovery factor of 0.5 leads to a Potential Biological Removal of 90 whales annually. This level of removals from all human induced mortalities is based on a recovery factor that is less precautionary but still within the range of those discussed for other marine mammal populations.
- Given the high level of uncertainty, both with the current and pre-commercial whaling population estimates, it is recommended that a high level of risk avoidance (i.e. FR = 0.1, PBR = 18) be considered for the management of this population until it can be demonstrated that a higher PBR is warranted.
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