Bowhead Whales, and Not Right Whales, Were the Primary Target of 16th- to 17th-Century Basque Whalers in the Western North Atlantic

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2007
• Subjects: Key words; Balaena mysticetus; Eubalaena glacialis; whaling; Basque; Little Ice Age; historical population size; DNA; bone; cytochrome; Belle Isle; Strait of Belle Isle; Arctic; bowhead whale; North Atlantic; North Atlantic right whale
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.545.136; http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic61-1-61.pdf

Basque whalers travelled annually to the Strait of Belle Isle and Gulf of St. Lawrence to hunt whales. The hunting that occurred during this period is of primary significance for the North Atlantic right whale, Eubalaena glacialis (Müller, 1776), because it has been interpreted as the largest human-...