ARCTIC Isabella Bay, Baffin Island: An Important Historical and Present-day Concentration Area for the Endangered Bowhead Whale (Balaena mysticetus) of the Eastern Canadian Arctic

• Main Author: K. J. Finley
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1989
• Subjects: Arctic; Baffin Island; Isabella Bay; Baffin; Balaena mysticetus; bowhead whale
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.484.9112; http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/arctic43-2-137.pdf

ABSTRACT. A late summer concentration of bowheads (Balaena mysticetus) at Isabella Bay, Baffin Island, was studied during 1983-88. The general results of the field study are presented and integrated with historical research and artifactual evidence of British whaling. Bowheads were observed from shore on virtually every day of adequate visibility in late summer, early fall of 1984-88, but in 1983 only two whales appeared. Peak numbers occurred in September, when as many as 68 whales were counted on one day. The whales congregated in specific areas corresponding to significant underwater topographic features. Most feeding took place in one of two deep (> 200 m) troughs and most social activity occurred on a shallow bank (< 30 m). Earliest arrivals were large subadults that engaged in social-sexual activities on the bank; adults arrived later and fed in deep troughs. Migrants from the north arrived in October. The mean length of 83 whales, measured photogrammetrically, was 14.4 m; 89 % were> 13 m long, which is about the minimum size of sexual maturity. The smallest whales, presumed to be large subadults, had less white on the tail stock. Females with calves were rarely seen. O e distinctively