FIN WHALE (Balaenoptera physalus): Western North Atlantic Stock

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2002
• Subjects: Atlantic Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ; principally; Balaenoptera physalus; Fin whale; Newfoundland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.294.9041; http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/ao2002whfn-wn.pdf

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 strong support for an earlier population model proposed by Kellogg (1929) and others. This postulates the existence of several subpopulations of fin whales in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean, with limited gene flow among them. Bérubé et al. (1998) also proposed that the North Atlantic population showed recent divergence due to climatic changes (i.e. postglacial expansion), as well as substructuring over even relatively short distances. The genetic data are consistent with the idea that different subpopulations use the same feeding ground, a hypothesis that was also originally proposed by Kellogg (1929). Fin whales are common in waters of the US