Report of the Sub-Committee on Bowhead, Right and Gray Whales

摘要

SC/59/BRG3 summarises research conducted over the past three years to investigate the stock structure of the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort (B-C-B) population of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus), as requested by the International Whaling Commission Scientific Committee (IWC SC) during its 2004 meeting (IWC, 2005, pp.23-24). Stock investigations essentially started in the late 1970s during the intensive years of population assessment, and the North Slope Borough (NSB) conducted considerable research in Russia using Native observers during the 1990s to determine the distribution and relative abundance of bowhead whales summering along the Chukotka coast. Research directed towards testing hypotheses concerning the stock structure of B-C-B bowhead whales included five elements.