An outline of the Antarctic minke whale assessment cruise (IWC/IDCR) in 1978/79 to 1980/81

• Main Author: Hidehiro Kato
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: whales Research Institute 1982
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctic Minke whale; baleen whales; Memoirs of National Institute of Polar Research; minke whale; Polar Research
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=1298; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00001298/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=1298&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

Since the 1978/79 Antarctic whaling season, extensive and systematic whale sightings and marking cruises on the Antarctic minke whales have been carried out under the International Whaling Commission/International Decade of Cetacean Research (IWC/IDCR) programme. The programme was carried out in the Southern Hemisphere Whaling Areas (for baleen whales) IV (70°-130°E), III (0°-70°E) and V (130°E-170°W) during the Antarctic summer season in 1978/79,1979/80 and 1980/81,respectively. The total numbers of minke whales sighted were 5322,4357 and 5213,and 728,703 and 474 whales were marked with. 410 "Discovery" whale marks in the 1978/79 (Area IV), 1979/80 (Area III) and 1980/81 (Area V) seasons, respectively. The systematic data of whale sightings and markings obtained from the IDCR cruises contributed not only to stock asseessment but also to development of methodology of estimation technique of whale population. At the 33rd IWC/Scientific Committee (SC) annual meeting held at Cambridge in June 1981,the exploitable stock size of minke whales was estimated from the data obtained by the IDCR cruises to be 71644,57951 and 79847 whales by whale sighting based upon the line transect theory, and 71644,57951 and 79847 whales by the markrecapture method in Areas III, IV and V, respectively. For the whole Antarctic, approximately 330000 minke whales of exploitable stock size was estimated as the weighted average by means of whale sightings, marking and a simulation model.