Current Population Trend

• Main Authors: Stock Definition, Geographic Range
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Greenland; The Gully; Davis Strait; North Atlantic; Spitzbergen
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.294.5586; http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/ao1995whnb-wn.pdf

Northern bottlenose whales are characterized as extremely uncommon or rare in waters of the U.S. Atlantic Exclusive Economic Zone. The two sightings of three individuals constituted less than 0.1 % of the 11,156 cetacean sightings in the 1978-82 CeTAP surveys. Both sightings were in the spring, along the 2,000 m isobath (CeTAP 1982). Northern bottlenose whales are distributed in the North Atlantic from Nova Scotia to about 70E in the Davis Strait, along the east coast of Greenland to 77E and from England to the west coast of Spitzbergen. It is largely a deepwater species and is very seldom found in waters less than 2,000 m deep (reviewed by Mead 1989). There are two main centers of bottlenose whale distribution in the western north Atlantic, one in the area called "The Gully " just north of Sable Island, Nova Scotia, and the other in Davis Strait off northern Labrador. Studies at the entrance to the Gully from 1988-1991 identified 208 individuals and estimated the local population size at a few hundred individuals (Faucher et al. 1991). Mitchell and Kozicki (1975) documented stranding records in the Bay of Fundy and as far south as Rhode Island. Stock definition is unknown.