MINKE WHALE (Balaenoptera acutorostrata): Canadian East Coast Stock

Minke whales have a cosmopo litan distribution in polar, tempera te and trop ical waters. In the No rth Atlantic there are four recognized pop ulations — Canadian east coast, west Greenland, central North Atlantic, and northeastern North Atlantic (Donovan 1991). These four population divisions were...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Stock Definition, Geographic Range
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2000
Subjects:
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.294.9044
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/ao2000whmi-cneco.pdf
Description
Summary:Minke whales have a cosmopo litan distribution in polar, tempera te and trop ical waters. In the No rth Atlantic there are four recognized pop ulations — Canadian east coast, west Greenland, central North Atlantic, and northeastern North Atlantic (Donovan 1991). These four population divisions were defined by examining segregation by sex and length, catch distributions, sightings, marking data and pre-existing ICES boundaries; however, there are very few data from the Can adian east coast population. Minke whales off the eastern coast of the United States are considered to be part of the Canadian east coast stock, which inhabits the area from the eastern half of the Davis Strait out to 45°W and south to the Gulf of Mexico. The relationship between this and the other three stocks is u ncertain. It is also uncertain if there are separate stocks within the