ARCTIC Benthic Prey in a Bowhead Whale from the

• Main Authors: Northern Bering Sea, Katherine W. Hazard, Lloyd F. Lowry
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Key words; Balaena mysticetus; benthic prey; Bering Sea; bowhead whale; feeding; gammarid amphipods; Arctic; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.557.9236; http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/arctic37-2-166.pdf

ABSTRACT. Stomach contents were examined from a bowhead whale, Balaena mysricerus, killed at Gambell, Alaska, on I May 1982. It contained an estimated 20-40 litres of recently ingested prey, principally gammarid amphipods (91.7 % of the volume of a 157-ml subsample) and cumaceans (7%). All identified prey were primarily epibenthic forms. The stomach of this whale was signifsant in several respects: (1) it contained the largest amount of food recorded in any whale taken and examined in spring; (2) it provided the first direct evidence of bowheads feeding in the Bering Sea; and (3) the contents indicated that benthic prey are sometimes intentionally fed upon.