BLUE WHALE (Balaenoptera musculus): Western North Atlantic Stock

• Main Authors: Stock Definition, Geographic Range
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1999
• Subjects: Arctic; Belle Isle; Canada; Greenland; Lawrence River; Mansfield; Strait of Belle Isle; Balaenoptera musculus; Blue whale; Davis Strait; Newfoundland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.294.8197; http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/ao1999whbl-wn.pdf

The distribution of the blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus, in the western North Atlantic generally extends from the Arctic to at least mid-latitudes. Blue whales are most frequently sighted in the waters off eastern Canada, with the majority of recent records from the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Sears et al. 1987). The species was hunted around Newfoundland in the first half of the 20th century (Sergeant 1966). The present Canadian distribution, broadly described, is spring, summer, and fall in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, especially along the north shore from the St. Lawrence River estuary to the Strait of Belle Isle and off eastern Nova Scotia. The species occurs in winter off southern Newfoundland and also in summer in Davis Strait (Mansfield 1985). Individual identification has confirmed the movement of a blue whale between the Gulf of St Lawrence and western Greenland (R. Sears and F. Larsen, unpublished data), although the extent of exchange between these two areas remains unknown. The blue whale is best considered as an occasional visitor in USA Atlantic Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) waters, which may represent the current southern limit of its feeding range (CETAP 1982; Wenzel et al. 1988). All of the five sightings described in the foregoing two references were in August. Yochem and Leatherwood (1985) summarized records that suggested an occurrence of this species south to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, although the actual southern limit of the species ’ range is unknown. Using the U.S. Navy’s SOSUS program, blue whales have been detected and tracked acoustically in much of the North Atlantic, including in subtropical waters north of the West Indies and in deep water east of the USA EEZ (Clark 1995). Most of the acoustic detections were around the Grand Banks area of Newfoundland and west of the British Isles. Sigurjónsson and Gunnlaugsson