FIN WHALE (Balaenoptera physalis): Northeast Pacific Stock Revised 12/30/98 STOCK DEFINITION AND GEOGRAPHIC RANGE In the North Pacific Ocean, fin whales

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Pacific; Balaenoptera physalis; Fin whale
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.294.8322; http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/ak1998whfn-ne.pdf

can be found from above the Arctic Circle to lower latitudes of approximately 20EN (Leatherwood et al. 1982). There are few data concerning the location of the winter grounds of fin whales because migrations from summer feeding areas back to their winter grounds tend to occur in the open ocean rather than near the coast (Mizroch et al. 1984). Within U. S. waters in the Pacific, fin whales are distributed seasonally off the coast of North America (Fig. 33) and occasionally near and around the waters of Hawaii. The following information was considered in classifying stock structure based on the Dizon et al. (1992) phylogeographic approach: 1) Distributional data: geographic distribution continuous in winter, possibly isolated in summer; 2) Population response data: unknown; 3) Phenotypic data: unknown; and 4) Genotypic data: unknown. Based on this limited information, the International Whaling