The
Bowhead Whale (
Balaena mysticetus), also known as
Greenland Right Whale or
Arctic Whale, is a
baleen whaleThe baleen whales, also called whalebone whales or great whales, form the Mysticeti, one of two suborders of the Cetacea . Baleen whales are characterized by having baleen plates for filtering food from water, rather than having teeth. This distinguishes them from the other suborder of cetaceans,...
of the right whale family
BalaenidaeBalaenidae is a family of mysticete whales that contains two living genera. Commonly called the right whales as it contains mainly right whale species...
(some think they are a sub-species of
Right whaleRight whales are the species of large baleen whales belonging to the genus Eubalaena. Three right whale species are recognized in this genus. They are closely related genetically to the larger, arctic Bowhead Whale, which is currently placed in its own genus, Balaena...
). A stocky dark-colored whale without a dorsal fin, it can grow to 20 meters (66 ft) in length. Estimated maximum weight of this thick-bodied species is , second only to the
Blue WhaleThe Blue Whale is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales . At up to in length and or more in weight, it is the largest animal ever known to have existed....
, although the Bowhead lags behind several other whales in maximum length. The Bowhead spends all of its life in fertile
ArcticThe Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest, and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions.
The International Hydrographic Organization recognizes it as an ocean, although some...
waters, unlike other whales that migrate for feeding or reproduction.
The Bowhead was an early target for the
whalingWhaling is the hunting of whales which dates back to at least 3,000 BC. The evolution of traditional Arctic whaling developed with increasing rapidity by early organized fleets in the 17th century; competitive national whaling industries in the 18th and 19th centuries; and the introduction of...
industry, and its population was severely depleted before a whaling moratorium was introduced in 1966. The population is estimated to be over 24,900 worldwide, down from an estimated 50,000 before the commencement of whaling. The Bowhead is also notable for its long lifespan, which makes it perhaps the longest-living
mammalMammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose females are characterized by the possession of mammary glands while both males and females are characterized by sweat glands, hair, three middle ear bones used in hearing, and a neocortex region in the brain.Mammals are divided into three main...
on earth. This animal holds the record for having the largest mouth in the world.
Taxonomy
The Bowhead Whale was described by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his
Systema NaturaeThe book Systema Naturae was one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carolus Linnaeus. Its full title is Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis or translated: "System of...
(1758).
Balaena has remained a monotypic genus ever since.
Leiobalaena, described by Eschricht in 1849, is a
junior synonymIn scientific nomenclature, synonyms are different scientific names used for a single taxon. Usage and terminology are different for zoology and botany.- Zoology :...
.
The Bowhead Whale is an individual species, separate from the other
right whaleRight whales are the species of large baleen whales belonging to the genus Eubalaena. Three right whale species are recognized in this genus. They are closely related genetically to the larger, arctic Bowhead Whale, which is currently placed in its own genus, Balaena...
s. It has always been recognized as such, and stands alone in its own genus as it has done since the work of
GrayJohn Edward Gray was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray ....
in 1821. There is, however, little genetic evidence to support this two-genera view. Indeed, scientists see greater differences between the members of
BalaenopteraBalaenoptera is a genus of Balaenopteridae, the Rorqual whales, and contains eight species. The species Balaenoptera omurai was published in 2003...
than between the Bowhead and the right whales. Thus, it is likely that all four species will be placed in one genus in some future review.
It is thought that
Balaena prisca, one of the five
Balaena fossilFossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous rock formations and sedimentary layers is known as the fossil record...
s from the late
MioceneThe Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the...
(~10
myaIn astronomy, geology, and paleontology, mya or "m.y.a." is an abbreviation for "million years ago". Like the related unit bya, mya is traditionally written in lower case...
) to early
PleistoceneThe Pleistocene is the epoch from 2.588 million to 12 000 years BP covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
(~1.5 mya), may be the same as the modern Bowhead Whale. Prior to these there is a long gap back to the next related cetacean in the fossil record,
Morenocetus, which was found in a
South AmericaSouth America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere...
n deposit dating back 23 million years.
Description
The Bowhead Whale is a robust-bodied, dark-colored animal with no
dorsal finA dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of some fish, whales, dolphins, and porpoises, as well as the ichthyosaurs. Depending on the species, an animal can have up to three of them. Its main purpose is to stabilize the animal against rolling and assist in sudden turns...
and a strongly bowed lower jaw and narrow upper jaw. The
baleenBaleen or whalebone enables baleen whales to feed. These whales do not have teeth, but instead have rows of baleen plates in the upper jaw – flat, flexible plates with frayed edges, arranged in two parallel rows, looking like combs of thick hair. Baleen is not bone, but is composed of...
plates, exceeding three meters and the longest of the baleen whales, are used to strain tiny prey from the water. This whale has a massive bony
skullThe skull is a bony structure found in the head of many animals. The skull supports the structures of the face and protects the head against injury....
which it uses to break the ice from beneath to breathe. Some
InuitInuit is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, and Alaska...
hunters have reported whales surfacing through of ice in this method. The Bowhead may reach lengths of up to and females are larger than males. The
blubberBlubber is a thick layer of vascularized fat found under the skin of all cetaceans, pinnipeds and sirenians.-Description:Lipid-rich, collagen fiber-laced blubber comprises the hypodermis and covers the whole body, except for parts of the appendages, strongly attached to the musculature and skeleton...
layer of whale flesh is thicker than in any other animal, averaging . The longest reported length for a Bowhead, was for an unweighed giant caught off of
SpitsbergenSvalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean north of mainland Europe, about midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. It consists of a group of islands ranging from 74° to 81° north latitude, and from 10° to 35° east longitude. The archipelago is the northernmost part of Norway. Three...
,
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
.
Distribution
The Bowhead Whale is the only
baleen whaleThe baleen whales, also called whalebone whales or great whales, form the Mysticeti, one of two suborders of the Cetacea . Baleen whales are characterized by having baleen plates for filtering food from water, rather than having teeth. This distinguishes them from the other suborder of cetaceans,...
that spends its entire life in and around
ArcticThe Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Greenland , Russia, the United States , Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.The word Arctic comes from the Greek αρκτικός , "near...
waters. Those found off
AlaskaAlaska is the largest state of the United States of America by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
spend the winter months in the southwestern
Bering SeaThe Bering Sea is a body of water in the Pacific Ocean that comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves....
. It migrates northward in the spring, following openings in the pack ice, into the
ChukchiChukchi Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the De Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, beyond which lies the Beaufort Sea...
and
BeaufortThe Beaufort Sea is the portion of the Arctic Ocean located north of the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and Alaska and west of Canada's Arctic islands. Its northwestern boundary is defined by a line connecting Point Barrow, Alaska, and Lands End, Prince Patrick Island. It is about...
seas, hunting
zooplanktonZooplankton are the heterotrophic type of plankton. Plankton are organisms drifting in the water column of oceans, seas, and bodies of fresh water. The name of zooplankton is derived from the Greek zoon , meaning "animal", and , meaning "wanderer" or "drifter"...
such as
copepodCopepods are a group of small crustaceans found in the sea and nearly every freshwater habitat. Many species are planktonic , but more are benthic , and some continental species may live in limno-terrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests,...
s. The Bowhead is a slow swimmer and usually travels alone or in small herds of up to six animals. Although it may stay below the water surface for as long as forty minutes in a single dive, it is not thought to be a deep diver.
Reproduction and lifespan
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. The whales' behavior can also include breaching, tail slapping, and spyhopping. 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 3 to 4 years, after a 13- to 14-month pregnancy. The newborn calf is about long and approximately , growing to by its first birthday.
The lifespan of a Bowhead was once thought to be 60 to 70 years, similar to other whales. However, discoveries of antique ivory spear points in living whales in 1993, 1995, 1999, and 2007 have triggered further research based on structures in the whale's eye, leading to the reliable conclusion that at least some individuals have lived to be 150–200 years old (another report has said a female at the age of 90 was allegedly still reproductive).
In May 2007, a 50
tonThe term ton or tonne generally refers to a unit of mass. However, there exists more than one measure of mass that are named "ton", so one has to be specific when using the term. While they do vary considerably, a ton is generally one of the heaviest units of mass referred to in colloquial speech...
specimen caught off the Alaskan coast was discovered to have the head of an explosive harpoon embedded deep under the blubber of its neck. Examination determined the 3 1/2 inch arrow-shaped projectile was manufactured in
New BedfordNew Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located 51 miles south of Boston, 28 miles southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and about 12 miles east of Fall River. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 93,768, making it the seventh-largest in the...
,
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
, a major whaling center, around 1890. This proof that it survived a similar hunt more than a century ago indicated to researchers that the whale's age was between 115 and 130 years old.
Because of their possible lifespans, female Bowhead Whales are believed to go through
menopauseMenopause is the time in a woman’s life when menstruation ends. It is part of a biological process that begins, for most women, in their mid-fifties. During this time, the ovaries gradually produce lower levels of natural sex hormones—estrogen and progesterone...
. Observations of very large animals without calves support this hypothesis.
Population status
The Bowhead Whale has been
huntedWhaling is the hunting of whales which dates back to at least 3,000 BC. The evolution of traditional Arctic whaling developed with increasing rapidity by early organized fleets in the 17th century; competitive national whaling industries in the 18th and 19th centuries; and the introduction of...
for its
blubberBlubber is a thick layer of vascularized fat found under the skin of all cetaceans, pinnipeds and sirenians.-Description:Lipid-rich, collagen fiber-laced blubber comprises the hypodermis and covers the whole body, except for parts of the appendages, strongly attached to the musculature and skeleton...
, meat,
oilWhale oil is the oil obtained from the blubber of various species of whales, particularly the three species of Right Whale and the Bowhead Whale prior to the modern era, as well as several other species of baleen whale...
, bones, and baleen. It is closely related to the right whales and shares with them the hunting-ideal characteristics of slow swimming and floating after death. Before commercial whaling, there were over 50,000 Bowhead Whales in the north polar region (estimated). Commercial whaling began in the 16th century, when the Basques hunted Bowhead Whales migrating south through the
Strait of Belle IsleThe Strait of Belle Isle , sometimes referred to as Straits of Belle Isle or Labrador Straits) is a waterway in eastern Canada that separates the Labrador Peninsula from the island of Newfoundland, in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador....
in the fall and early winter. In 1611, the first whaling expedition was sent to
SpitsbergenSpitsbergen is a Norwegian island, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The island of Spitsbergen covers approximately 39,044 km²...
, and by mid-century the population(s) there had practically been wiped out, forcing whalers to begin voyaging into the "West Ice" - the pack ice off the east coast of
GreenlandGreenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago...
. By 1719, whalers had reached the
Davis StraitDavis Strait is a northern arm of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Nunavut, Canada's Baffin Island. The strait was named for the English explorer John Davis , who explored the area while seeking a Northwest Passage....
, and by the first quarter of the 19th century
Baffin BayBaffin Bay a sea connecting the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. It is 1,130 km across from north to south. It is not navigable most of the year because of the presence of large numbers of icebergs.-History:...
. In the
North PacificThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and...
, commercial whaling began in the 1840s, and within two decades over 60 percent of the Bowhead Whale population had been wiped out.
Commercial whaling, the principal cause of the population decline, has been discontinued. The population off
AlaskaAlaska is the largest state of the United States of America by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
has increased since commercial whaling ceased.
Alaska NativesAlaska Natives are the indigenous peoples of Alaska. They include: Inupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Eyak, and a number of Northern Athabaskan cultures.-History:In 1912 the Alaska Native Brotherhood was founded...
continue to kill small numbers of Bowhead Whales in
subsistence huntA subsistence economy is an economy in which a group attempts to produce no more output per period than they must consume in that period in order to survive, but do not attempt to accumulate wealth or to transfer productivity from one period to the next. In such a system, a concept of wealth may...
s each year. This level of killing (25–40 animals annually) is not expected to affect the population's recovery. The Bowhead Whale population off Alaska's coast (also called the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort stock) appears to be recovering but remains at about 10,500 animals (2001). The status of the other Bowhead populations is less well known. There are about 1,200 Bowheads off West Greenland (2006), while the Spitsbergen Bowhead population may only number in the tens.
In March, 2008, Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans stated that previous estimates of the Bowhead population in the Eastern Arctic had undercounted the number of whales in the region, with a new estimate of 14,400 animals (r. 4,800-43,000). These larger numbers would correspond to the estimates of the whale population before whaling, indicating that this population has recovered. However, some supporters of climate change could argue that with more breaking up of sea ice Bowhead whales could be threatened by increased shipping traffic.
The Bowhead is listed in Appendix I by CITES (that is, "threatened with extinction"). It is listed by the
National Marine Fisheries ServiceThe U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service is a United States federal agency. A division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Commerce, NMFS is responsible for the stewardship and management of the nation's living marine resources and their habitat within...
as endangered under the auspices of the United States'
Endangered Species ActThe Endangered Species Act of 1973 is the most wide-ranging of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s...
. The
IUCN Red ListThe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , founded in 1948, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources is the world's main authority on the conservation...
data is as follows:
- Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen is a Norwegian island, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The island of Spitsbergen covers approximately 39,044 km²...
population - Critically endangered
- Sea of Okhotsk
The Sea of Okhotsk is a part of the western Pacific Ocean, lying between the Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, the island of Hokkaidō to the far south, the island of Sakhalin along the west, and a long stretch of eastern Siberian coast along the west and north...
subpopulation - Endangered
- Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay a sea connecting the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. It is 1,130 km across from north to south. It is not navigable most of the year because of the presence of large numbers of icebergs.-History:...
-Davis StraitDavis Strait is a northern arm of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Nunavut, Canada's Baffin Island. The strait was named for the English explorer John Davis , who explored the area while seeking a Northwest Passage....
stock - Endangered
- Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay is a large body of water in northeastern Canada. It drains a very large area that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, most of Manitoba, southeastern Nunavut, as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana. A smaller offshoot of the bay,...
-Foxe BasinNot to be confused with Fox Bay, Falkland IslandsFoxe Basin is a shallow oceanic basin north of Hudson Bay, in Nunavut, Canada, located between Baffin Island and the Melville Peninsula...
stock - Vulnerable
- Bering
The Bering Sea is a body of water in the Pacific Ocean that comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves....
-ChukchiChukchi Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the De Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, beyond which lies the Beaufort Sea...
-BeaufortThe Beaufort Sea is the portion of the Arctic Ocean located north of the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and Alaska and west of Canada's Arctic islands. Its northwestern boundary is defined by a line connecting Point Barrow, Alaska, and Lands End, Prince Patrick Island. It is about...
stock - Lower risk - conservation dependent
Behavior and predators
Unlike most other baleen whales which primarily feed on concentrated shoals of prey species, the Bowhead Whale feeds in a manner similar to the
Basking SharkThe basking shark, Cetorhinus maximus, is the second largest living shark, after the whale shark. It is a cosmopolitan species — it is found in all the world's temperate oceans. It is a slow moving and generally harmless filter feeder.-Taxonomy:...
by swimming forward with its mouths agape and continuously filtering water through its baleen plates. Thus, it specializes in feeding on much smaller prey items such as copepods. Its mouth with the large upturning lip on the lower jaw 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 swims forward. This is in contrast to the rorquals which have distendable ventral pleats that they fill with water containing prey, which is then pushed out and filtered through the baleen plates in distinct batches.
The Bowhead is social and nonaggressive, and will retreat under the ice when threatened. Its only predators are
humanHumans are bipedal primates belonging to the species Homo sapiens in Hominidae, the great ape family. They are the only surviving member of the genus Homo. Humans have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, and problem solving...
s and the
OrcaThe Killer Whale or Orca , or less commonly, Blackfish, is the largest species of the dolphin family. Most people think that they are whales, but they are actually dolphins. They are called killer whales often because they sometimes hunt whales for food...
. On rare occasions, the Bowheads are also attacked by
sea lionSea lions are any of seven species in seven genera of modern pinnipeds including one extinct species . Sea lions are characterized by the presence of external ear pinnae , long front flippers, and the ability to walk on all four flippers on land...
s.
External links