Bowhead whale

Bowhead whale[1]
Size compared to an average human
Conservation status

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Suborder: Mysticeti
Family: Balaenidae
Genus: Balaena
Linnaeus, 1758
Species: B. mysticetus
Binomial name
Balaena mysticetus
Linnaeus, 1758
Bowhead whale range

The bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) is a species of the right whale family Balaenidae, in suborder Mysticeti and genus Balaena. A stocky dark-colored whale without a dorsal fin, it can grow to 20 m (66 ft) in length. This thick-bodied species can weigh 75 tonnes (74 long tons; 83 short tons) to 100 tonnes (98 long tons; 110 short tons).[3] It lives entirely in fertile Arctic and sub-Arctic waters, unlike other whales that migrate to low latitude waters to feed or reproduce. It was also known as the Greenland right whale or Arctic whale. American whalemen called it the steeple-top, polar whale,[4] or Russia or Russian whale. The bowhead has the largest mouth of any animal.[5]

The bowhead was an early whaling target. Its population was severely reduced before a 1966 moratorium. Its population has since recovered and is now rated "Least Concern".

Taxonomy

Carl Linnaeus first described this whale in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae (1758).[6] Seemingly identical to its cousins in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and Southern Oceans, they were all thought to be a single species, collectively known as the "right whale", and given the binomial name Balaena mysticetus.

Today, the bowhead whale occupies a monotypic genus, separate from the right whales, as was proposed by the work of John Edward Gray in 1821.[7] For the next 180 years, the Balaenidae family was the subject of great taxonometric debate. Authorities have repeatedly recategorized the three populations of right whale plus the bowhead whale, as one, two, three or four species, either in a single genus or in two separate genera. Eventually, it was recognized that bowheads and right whales were in fact different, but there was still no strong consensus as to whether they shared a single genus or two. As recently as 1998, Dale Rice, in his comprehensive and otherwise authoritative classification, Marine mammals of the world: systematics and distribution, listed just two species: B. glacialis (the right whales) and B. mysticetus (the bowheads).[8]

Studies in the 2000s finally provided clear evidence that the three living right whale species do comprise a phylogenetic lineage, distinct from the bowhead, and that the bowhead and the right whales are rightly classified into two separate genera.[9] The right whales were thus confirmed to be in a separate genus, Eubalaena. The relationship is shown in the cladogram below:


Family Balaenidae
 Family Balaenidae 
  Eubalaena (right whales)  

 E. glacialis North Atlantic right whale

 E. japonica North Pacific right whale

 E. australis Southern right whale




  Balaena (bowhead whales)  

  B. mysticetus bowhead whale  



The bowhead whale, genus Balaena, in the family Balaenidae (extant taxa only)[10]


Balaena prisca, one of the five Balaena fossils from the late Miocene (~10 Mya) to early Pleistocene (~1.5 Mya), may be the same as the modern bowhead whale. The earlier fossil record shows no related cetacean after Morenocetus, found in a South American deposit dating back 23 million years.

An unknown species of right whale, the so-called "Swedenborg whale" which was proposed by Emanuel Swedenborg in the 18th century, was once thought to be a North Atlantic right whale by scientific consensus. However based on later DNA analysis those fossil bones claimed to be from "Swedenborg whales" were confirmed to be from bowhead whales.[11]

Description

Resting on water surface in Foxe Basin

The bowhead whale has a robust, dark-colored body, no dorsal fin, a strongly bowed lower jaw and narrow upper jaw. Its baleen is the longest of any whale at 3 m (9.8 ft), and is used to strain tiny prey from the water. The bowhead whale has paired blowholes that spout a blow 20 feet high. Its blubber is the thickest of any animal, averaging 43–50 cm (17–20 in).

The bowhead has a massive bony skull which it uses to break through the Arctic ice to breathe. Inuit hunters have reported them surfacing through 60 cm (24 in) of ice.

It is comparable in size to the three species of right whale. According to the whaling captain William Scoresby, Jr., the longest bowhead he measured was 17.7 m (58 ft) long, while the longest measurement he had ever heard of was of a 20.4 m (67 ft) whale caught at Godhavn, Greenland, in the spring of 1813. He also spoke of one caught near Spitsbergen around 1800 that was allegedly nearly 21.3 m (70 ft) in length, but its questionable if it actually was measured.[12] The longest reliably measured of each sex were a 16.2 m (53 ft) male and an 18 m (59 ft) female, both harvested and landed in Alaska.[13] Females are larger than males.

Analysis of hundreds of DNA samples from living whales and from baleen used in vessels, toys and housing material has shown that Arctic bowhead whales have lost a significant portion of their genetic diversity in the past 500 years. Bowheads crossed ice-covered inlets and straits to exchange genes between Atlantic and Pacific populations. This conclusion derived from analyzing maternal lineage using mitochondrial DNA, most likely because of whaling and climatic cooling between the 16th and 19th centuries — known as the Little Ice Age — which reduced the whales’ summer habitat.[14]

A recent discovery has elucidated the function of the Bowhead's large palatal retial organ. The bulbous ridge of highly vascularized tissue, termed the corpus cavernosum maxillaris, extends along the centre of the hard plate, forming two large lobes at the rostral palate. The tissue is histologically similar to the corpus cavernosum of the mammalian penis. It is hypothesized that this organ provides a mechanism of cooling for the whale (which is normally protected from the cold Arctic waters by 40 cm or more of fat). During times of physical exertion, the whale must cool itself to prevent hyperthermia (and ultimately brain damage). It is now believed that this organ engorges with blood, causing the whale to respond by opening its mouth so that cold seawater can flow over the organ, thus cooling the blood.[15]

Life history

Drawing of long backbone, 13 ribs (two vestigial) large, curved upper and lower jawbones that occupy 1/3 of the body, 4 multijointed "fingers" inside pectoral fin and connecting bone, enclosed in body outline
Skeleton of a bowhead whale

The bowhead is social and nonaggressive and retreats under the ice when threatened.

Swimming and behavior

The bowhead is a slow swimmer and usually travels alone or in small herds of up to six. Though it may remain submerged as long as 40 minutes in a single dive, it is not thought to be a deep diver. Although perhaps less active than Eubalaena sp., the behavior of bowheads generally resembles that of right whales, including showing curiosity towards mankind. Their behavior can also include breaching, tail slapping, and spyhopping. Beluga whales often follow Bowheads; perhaps from curiosity, perhaps to secure polynya feasible for belugas to breathe, as bowheads are capable of breaking through ice from beneath by headbutting.[16]

Vocalizations

The bowhead whale is highly vocal and uses underwater sounds to communicate while traveling, feeding, and socializing. Some bowheads make long, repetitive songs that may be mating calls.

Reproduction

Stamp showing drawing of mother and calf

Sexual activity occurs between pairs and in boisterous groups of several males and one or two females. Breeding has been observed from March through August; conception is believed to occur primarily in March. Reproduction can begin when a whale is 10 to 15 years old. Females produce a calf once every three to four years, after a 13–14 month pregnancy. The newborn calf is about 4.5 m (15 ft) long and approximately 1,000 kg (2,200 lb), growing to 9 m (30 ft) by its first birthday.

Because of their long lifespans, females are believed to go through menopause. Observations of very large animals without calves support this hypothesis.[17]

Lifespan

Bowheads were once thought to live 60 to 70 years, similar to other whales. However, discoveries of 19th century ivory, slate, and jade spear points in freshly killed whales in 1993, 1995, 1999, and 2007[18] triggered research based on structures in the whale's eye, suggesting that at least some individuals reached 150–200 years old (another report claimed a 90-year-old female was still fertile).[19] If true, this would make them the longest lived mammal.[20] Amino acid dating using the amino acid racemization process provided the first scientific basis for these claims. This process is controversial and has failed to correlate well with other dating methods.[21] However, in 2015, scientists from the US and UK mapped the whale's genome and identified two alleles that differed from those in Minke whales and could be responsible for the difference in their longevity.[22][23]

In May 2007, a 15 m (49 ft) specimen caught off the Alaskan coast was discovered with the head of an explosive harpoon embedded deep under its neck blubber. The 3.5-inch (89 mm) arrow-shaped projectile was manufactured in New Bedford, Massachusetts, a major whaling center, around 1890, suggesting the animal may have survived a similar hunt more than a century ago.[24][25][26]

Ecology

Drawing of an adult in 1884

Range and habitat

The bowhead whale is the only baleen whale to spend its entire life in and around Arctic waters. The Alaskan population spends the winter months in the southwestern Bering Sea. The group migrates northward in the spring, following openings in the pack ice, into the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.[27] It has been confirmed that their range changes depending on climate changes.[28]

Population

The bowhead population around Alaska has increased since commercial whaling ceased. Alaska Natives continue to kill small numbers in subsistence hunts each year. This level of killing (25–40 animals annually) is not expected to affect the population's recovery. The population off Alaska's coast (the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort stock) appears to be recovering and was about 10,500 animals as of 2001. Researchers from the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences have been studying the whales' feeding behaviors in the Point Barrow area. The status of other populations is less well known. There were about 1,200 off West Greenland in 2006, while the Svalbard population may only number in the tens, but with increasing numbers in recent years.[29]

In March 2008, Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans stated the previous estimates in the eastern Arctic had undercounted, with a new estimate of 14,400 animals (range 4,800–43,000).[30] These larger numbers correspond to prewhaling estimates, indicating this population has fully recovered. However, should climate change substantially shrink sea ice, they could be threatened by increased shipping traffic.[31]

Bowheads are also known to visit Commander Islands on occasion although their groups of origin are unknown.[32]

Whale spyhops in Ulbansky Bay, northwestern Okhotsk Sea.[33]

Sea of Okhotsk

Not much is known about the endangered Sea of Okhotsk population. However, since recent times whales have been regularly observed near the Shantar Islands, very close to the shore, such as at Ongachan Bay.[34][35] Several companies provide whale watching services which are mostly land-based. According to Russian scientists, this total population likely does not exceed 400 animals.[33] Scientific research on this population was seldom done before 2009, when researchers studying Belugas noticed concentrations of Bowheads in the study area. Thus bowheads in the Sea of Okhotsk were once called "forgotten whales" by researchers. With support from WWF, Russian scientists and nature conservationists cooperated to create a cetacean sanctuary in the Magadan region which covers vast areas of north western Sea of Okhotsk including the Shantar regions.[36] Cetacean species benefiting from this proposal include several critically endangered species such as North Pacific right whales, western Gray whales, and the smaller Belugas, or white whales (Delphinapterus leucas).

International support from several other organizations has been offered.[33]

Russian Arctic

The most endangered and historically the largest of all Bowhead populations is the Svalbard/Spitsbergen stock.[37] Occurring normally in Fram Strait,[38] Barents Sea and Severnaya Zemlya along Kara Sea[29] to Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea regions, these whales were seen in entire coastal regions in European and Russian Arctic, even reaching to Icelandic and Scandinavian coasts and Jan Mayen in Greenland Sea, and west of Cape Farewell and western Greenland coasts.[39] Also, Bowheads in this stock were possibly once abundant in areas with adjacent to the White Sea region, where few or no animals currently migrate, such as Kola and Kanin Peninsula. Today, the number of sightings in elsewhere are very small,[40] but with increasing regularities[41] with whales having strong regional connections.[42] Whales have also started approaching townships and inhabited areas such as around Longyearbyen.[43] The waters around the marine mammal sanctuary[44] of Franz Josef Land is possibly functioning as the most important habitat for this population.[45][46]

Current status of population structure of this stock is unclear; whether they are remnant of historic Svalbard group, or re-colonized individuals from other stocks, or mixing of these two or more stocks had taken place.

Possible moulting area on Baffin Island

During expeditions by a tour operator 'Arctic Kingdom', a large group of Bowheads seemingly involved in courtship activities was discovered in very shallow bays in south of Qikiqtarjuaq in 2012.[47] Floating skins and rubbing behaviors at sea bottom indicate possible moulting had been taken place. Moulting behaviors had never or seldomly been documented for this species before, and this area is supposed to be an important habitat for whales that were observed to be relatively active and to interact with humans positively, or to rest on sea floors. These whales belong to Davis Strait stock.

Isabella Bay in Niginganiq National Wildlife Area is the first wildlife sanctuary in the world to be designed specially for Bowhead whales, but moultings have not been recorded in this area due to environmental factors.[48]

Feeding

Unlike most other baleen whales, which primarily feed on concentrated shoals of prey species, it feeds in a manner similar to the basking shark by swimming forward with its mouth wide open, continuously filtering water through its baleen plates. Thus, it specializes in much smaller prey, such as copepods. Its mouth has a large upturning lip on the lower jaw that helps to reinforce and contain the baleen plates within its mouth, and prevents buckling or breakage of the plates due to the pressure of the water passing through them as it advances.

This is in contrast to the rorquals, which have distensible ventral pleats that they fill with prey-laden water, then expel the water while filtering out the prey through their baleen plates. They also feed on krill and copepods.

Predation

The principal predators of bowheads are humans. Occasionally, predatory attacks by orca pods have also been recorded.[49]

Whaling

Two whaleboats beached in foreground, 5 rowed and 4 sailing whaleboats chasing/attacking 5 whales, two larger whaling ships nearby, and sun peeking around snow-covered mountain in background
Eighteenth century engraving showing Dutch whalers hunting bowhead whales in the Arctic

The bowhead whale has been hunted for blubber, meat, oil, bones, and baleen. Like right whales, it swims slowly, and floats after death, making it ideal for whaling. Before commercial whaling, they were estimated to number 50,000.

Commercial bowhead whaling began in the 16th century, when the Basques killed them as they migrated south through the Strait of Belle Isle in the fall and early winter. In 1611, the first whaling expedition sailed to Spitsbergen. By mid-century, the population(s) there had practically been wiped out, forcing whalers to voyage into the "West Ice"—the pack ice off Greenland's east coast. By 1719, they had reached the Davis Strait, and by the first quarter of the 19th century, Baffin Bay.

In the North Pacific, the first bowheads were taken off the eastern coast of Kamchatka by the Danish whaleship Neptun, Captain Thomas Sodring, in 1845. In 1847, the first bowheads were caught in the Sea of Okhotsk, and the following year, Captain Thomas Welcome Roys, in the bark Superior, of Sag Harbor, caught the first bowheads in the Bering Strait region. By 1849, 50 ships were hunting bowheads in each area. By 1852, 220 ships were cruising around the Bering Strait region, which killed over 2,600 whales. Between 1854 and 1857, the fleet shifted to the Sea of Okhotsk, where 100–160 ships cruised annually. During 1858–1860, the ships shifted back to the Bering Strait region, where the majority of the fleet would cruise during the summer up until the early 20th century. An estimated 18,600 bowheads were killed in the Bering Strait region between 1848 and 1914, with 60% of the total being reached within the first two decades. An estimated 18,000 bowheads were killed in the Sea of Okhotsk during 1847–1867, 80% in the first decade.

Bowheads were first taken along the pack ice in the northeastern Sea of Okhotsk, then in Tausk Bay and Northeast Gulf (Shelikhov Gulf). Soon, ships expanded to the west, catching them around Iony Island and then around the Shantar Islands. In the Western Arctic, they mainly caught them in the Anadyr Gulf, the Bering Strait, and around St. Lawrence Island. They later spread to the western Beaufort Sea (1854) and the Mackenzie River delta (1889).

Inuit woman and child standing on bowhead whale after a 2002 subsistence hunt

Commercial whaling, the principal cause of the population decline, is over. Bowhead whales are now hunted on a subsistence level by native peoples of North America.

Conservation

The bowhead is listed in Appendix I by CITES (that is, "threatened with extinction"). It is listed by the National Marine Fisheries Service as "endangered" under the auspices of the United States' Endangered Species Act. The IUCN Red List data are as follows:

The bowhead whale is listed on Appendix I[51] of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), as this species has been categorized as being in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant proportion of their range and CMS Parties strive towards strictly protecting these animals, conserving or restoring the places where they live, mitigating obstacles to migration and controlling other factors that might endanger them.

See also

Gallery

  1. ^ Vladislav Raevskii. Retrieved 1 June 2014
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Olga_Shpak._2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

References

  1. ↑ Mead, J. G.; Brownell, R. L., Jr. (2005). "Order Cetacea". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 723–743. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  2. ↑ Reilly, S.B., Bannister, J.L., Best, P.B., Brown, M., Brownell Jr., R.L., Butterworth, D.S., Clapham, P.J., Cooke, J., Donovan, G.P., Urbán, J. & Zerbini, A.N. (2012). "Balaena mysticetus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
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  4. ↑ Scammon, Charles M. (1874) The Marine Mammals of the North-Western Coast of North America, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, ISBN 1597140619.
  5. ↑ Guinness World Records (14 November 2007). "Whale of a time!". Retrieved 4 June 2009.
  6. ↑ (Latin) Linnaeus, C (1758). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata. Holmiae. (Laurentii Salvii). p. 824.
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  14. ↑ Eilperin, Juliet (18 October 2012). "Bowhead whales lost genetic diversity, study shows". The Washington Post.
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  16. ↑ Dueck L. (2014). "3.2 Habits – 3.2.1 Diving Characteristics and Sightability Estimates of Eastern Arctic Bowhead Whales Based on Satellite-Linked Telemetry". The Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Retrieved 2015-01-30.
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  22. ↑ "Scientists map bowhead whale’s genome; discover genes responsible for long life". Technie News. 5 January 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
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  26. ↑ 19th-century weapon found in whale. Associated Press via USA Today. 12 June 2007
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  40. ↑ Ritchie B. (June 2013) Arctic shorts – bowhead whale. Vimeo. Retrieved 2 June 2014
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  42. ↑ WIIG Ø., Bachmann L., Janik M.V., Kovacs M.K., Lydersen C., 2007. Spitsbergen Bowhead Whales Revisited. Society for Marine Mammalogy. Retrieved 24 May 2014
  43. ↑ Johannessen, R. (19 October 2011) Dette er en sensasjon!. The Aftenposten. retrieved on 27 May 2014
  44. ↑ Nefedova T., Gavrilo M., Gorshkov S., 2013. Летом в Арктике стало меньше льда. Russian Geographical Society. retrieved on 24 May 2014
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  46. ↑ Scalini I. (19 February 2014) Всемирный день китов. Russian Arctic National Park. retrieved on 24 May 2014
  47. ↑ Lennartz T. (29 April 2013) New Bowhead Whale Molting Location Found. Arctic Kingdom. retrieved on 9 June 2014
  48. ↑ Polar Bears and Glaciers of Baffin Island Webinar on Vimeo. Arctic Kingdom. 2014. retrieved on 9 June 2014
  49. ↑ Bowhead Whale. The Kids’ Times: Volume II, Issue 2. NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, Office of Protected Resources (2011)
  50. ↑ Bowhead Whale, Walrus and Polar Bears of Foxe Basin on Vimeo. Arctic Kingdom. 2011. retrieved on 9 June 2014
  51. ↑ "Appendix I" of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). As amended by the Conference of the Parties in 1985, 1988, 1991, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2005, and 2008. Effective: 5 March 2009.

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