STOCK DEFINITION AND GEOGRAPHIC RANGE
The distribution of the sperm whale in the USA EEZ occurs on the continental shelf edge, over the continental slope, and into mid-ocean regions (Figure 1). Waring et al. (1993) suggest that this offshore distribution is more comm only associated with the Gulf Stream edge and other features. However,...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2000
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.294.7512 http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/ao2000whsp-n.pdf |
| Summary: | The distribution of the sperm whale in the USA EEZ occurs on the continental shelf edge, over the continental slope, and into mid-ocean regions (Figure 1). Waring et al. (1993) suggest that this offshore distribution is more comm only associated with the Gulf Stream edge and other features. However, the sperm whales that occur in the eastern USA EEZ likely represent only a fraction of the total stock. The nature of linkages of the USA habitat with those to the south, north, and offsh ore is unknown. Historical whaling records compiled by Schmidly (1981) suggested an offshore distribution off the southeast USA, o ver the Blake Plateau, and into deep ocean. In the southeast Caribbean, both large and small adults, as well as calves and juveniles of different sizes are reported (W atkins et al. 1985). Whether the northwestern A tlantic population is discrete from northeastern Atlantic is currently unresolved. The International Whaling Commission recognizes one stock for the North Atlantic. Based on reviews of man y types of stock studies, (i.e., tagging, genetics, catch data, mark-recapture, biochemical markers, etc.) Reeves and Whitehead (1997) and Dufault et al. (1999) suggest that sperm whale populations have no clear geographic structure. There exists one tag return of a male tagged off Browns Bank (Nova Scotia) in 1966 and returned from Spain in 1973 (Mitchell 1975). Another male taken off northern Denmark in August 1981 had been wounded the previous summer by whalers off the Azores (Reeves and Whitehead 1997). In the USA EEZ waters, there appears to be a |
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