Research Document - 2005/004
Molecular genetic relationships among bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) in Eastern Canadian Arctic and Western Greenland waters
By Postma, L.D., L.P. Dueck, M.P. Heide-Jørgensen, B.G.E. de March, and S.E. Cosens
Abstract
Molecular genetic relationships among bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) were examined to test the hypothesis that bowheads in the Eastern Canadian Arctic and Western Greenland are from a single population of interbreeding animals. DNA sequencing of the mitochondrial d-loop region and the analysis of 15 nuclear DNA microsatellite loci were completed for 286 individual bowheads sampled at Pelly Bay, Igloolik, Repulse Bay and Pangnirtung in Nunavut, Canada and from Disko Bay in Western Greenland. An additional sample of whales from the Beaufort Sea representing the putative Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort (B-C-B) Sea stock/population was also included in the analysis. While mtDNA haplotype frequency comparisons did not support a rejection of the single population hypothesis, nuclear DNA microsatellite results showed some sub-structuring of the population, specifically the bowheads in Igloolik (Foxe Basin) as compared to the Pangnirtung and W. Greenland (Baffin Bay) samples. Furthermore, the Repulse Bay (Hudson Bay) samples were differentiated from the W. Greenland samples, but not from the Pangnirtung samples. Geographic partitioning of the animals is one possible reason for this result. Other possibilities include sex and/or age class segregation, temporal segregation, selective mating strategies/success or some combination of these factors. Until the possible mechanisms generating this genetic differentiation are more fully investigated and understood, the Hudson Bay-Foxe Basin (HB-FB) bowheads should continue to be considered a separate genetic sub-population from the Baffin Bay-Davis Strait (BB-DS) bowheads.
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