Hawaiian Stock STOCK DEFINITION AND

• Main Author: Geographic Range
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bering Sea; Pacific
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.233.2581; http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/po2010whsp-hi.pdf

Sperm whales are widely distributed across the entire North Pacific and into the southern Bering Sea in summer but the majority are thought to be south of 40 o N in winter (Rice 1974, 1989; Gosho et al. 1984; Miyashita et al. 1995). For management, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) had divided the North Pacific into two management regions (Donovan 1991) defined by a zig-zag line which starts at 150 o W at the equator, is 160 o W between 40-50 o N, and ends up at 180 o W north of 50 o N; however, the IWC has not reviewed this stock boundary in many years (Donovan 1991). Summer/fall surveys in the eastern tropical Pacific (Wade and Gerrodette 1993) show that although sperm whales are widely distributed in the tropics, their relative abundance tapers off markedly westward towards the middle of the tropical Pacific (near the IWC stock boundary at 150 o W) and