Whales Before Whaling in the North Atlantic

• Main Authors: Joe Roman, Stephen R. Palumbi
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: baleen whale; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1025.5800; http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/301/5632/508.full.pdf

It is well known that hunting dramatically reduced all baleen whale populations, yet reliable estimates of former whale abundances are elusive. Based on co-alescent models for mitochondrial DNA sequence variation, the genetic diver-sity of North Atlantic whales suggests population sizes of approximately 240,000 humpback, 360,000 fin, and 265,000 minke whales. Estimates for fin and humpback whales are far greater than those previously calculated for prewhaling populations and 6 to 20 times higher than present-day population estimates. Such discrepancies suggest the need for a quantitative reevaluation of historical whale populations and a fundamental revision in our conception of the natural state of the oceans. Approaching the New World in 1635, En-glish minister Richard Mather rejoiced in the “multitude of great whales, which now was grown ordinary and usuall to behold ” (1). Commercial whalers consumed this abun-