FIN WHALE (Balaenoptera physalus): Western North Atlantic Stock

• Main Authors: Stock Definition, Geographic Range
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1998
• Subjects: Balaenoptera physalus; Fin whale; Newfoundland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.294.8633; http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/ao1998whfn-wn.pdf

The Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has proposed stock boundaries for North Atlantic fin whales. Fin whales off the eastern U.S., north to Nova Scotia and on to the southeast coast of Newfoundland are believed to constitute a single stock under the present IWC scheme (Donovan 1991). However, the stock identity of North Atlantic fin whales has received relatively little attention, and whether the current stock boundaries define biologically isolated units has long been uncertain. The existence of a subpopulation structure was suggested by local depletions that resulted from commercial overharvesting (Mizroch et al. 1984). A genetic study conducted by Bérubé et al. (1998) using both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA provided