RESEARCH ARTICLE Long-term population size of the North Atlantic humpback whale within the context of worldwide population structure

• Main Authors: Kristen Ruegg, Howard C. Rosenbaum, Eric C. Anderson, Marcia Engel, Anna Rothschild, C. Scott, Baker Stephen, R. Palumbi, K. Ruegg, S. R. Palumbi, H. C. Rosenbaum
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Humpback Whale; Megaptera novaeangliae; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.666.1443; http://palumbi.stanford.edu/manuscripts/Longtermpopulationsizeofnorthatlantic.pdf

Abstract Once hunted to the brink of extinction, hump-back whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the North Atlantic have recently been increasing in numbers. How-ever, uncertain information on past abundance makes it difficult to assess the extent of the recovery in this species. While estimates of pre-exploitation abundance based upon catch data suggest the population might be approaching pre-whaling numbers, estimates based on mtDNA genetic diversity suggest they are still only a fraction of their past abundance levels. The difference between the two esti-mates could be accounted for by inaccuracies in the catch record, by uncertainties surrounding the genetic estimate, or by differences in the timescale to which the two esti-mates apply. Here we report an estimate of long-term population size based on nuclear gene diversity. We