Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A hidden getaway for bowhead whales in the Greenland Sea

  • Short Note
  • Published:
Polar Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The critically endangered Spitsbergen stock of bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) seems to be increasing. However, research effort has also been increasing confounding a firm conclusion. A systematic aerial survey for walrus (Odobaenus rosmarus), applying distance sampling methodology in part of the Northeast Water Polynya (NEW), revealed a ‘bycatch’ of several observations of bowhead whales, which resulted in an estimated abundance of 102 (95 % CI 32–329) individuals. This is the largest abundance of bowhead whales reported from the Greenland Sea since the days of whaling in the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries. The NEW was inaccessible to vessels during the whaling period because of heavy pack ice, and it is only recently that researchers have visited this area; thus only a few sightings of bowhead whales within the NEW exist prior to the survey in 2009. The NEW may nevertheless be one of the most important summering grounds for the Spitsbergen stock, and the whales may benefit from advection of calanoid copepods from the productive deep basins along the coast of Svalbard east of the NEW. This discovery provides renewed hope for the Spitsbergen stock of bowhead whales that until now has shown only inconclusive signs of recovery despite more than 100 years of protection from whaling.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

References

  • Allen RC, Keay I (2006) Bowhead whales in the eastern Arctic, 1611–1911: population reconstruction with historical whaling records. Environ Hist 12:89–113

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ashjian CJ, Braund SR, Campbell RG, George JC, Kruse J, Maslowski W, Moore SE, Nicolson CR, Okkonen SR, Sherr BF, Sherr EB, Spitz YH (2010) Climate variability, oceanography, bowhead whale distribution, and Inupiat subsistence whaling near Barrow Alaska. Arctic 63:179–194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boertmann D, Mosbech A (2012) The western Greenland Sea, a strategic environmental impact assessment of hydrocarbon activities. Scientific Report from DCE No. 22, Aarhus University

  • Boertmann D, Nielsen RD (2010a) Geese, seabirds and mammals in North and Northeast Greenland. Aerial surveys in summer 2009. NERI Technical Report No. 773. National Environmental Research Institute, Aarhus University

  • Boertmann D, Nielsen RD (2010b) A bowhead whale calf observed in northeast Greenland waters. Polar Rec 46:373–375

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boertmann D, Merkel F, Durinck J (2009) Bowhead whales in East Greenland, summers 2006–2008. Polar Biol 32:1805–1809

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Born EW, Boertmann D, Heide-Jørgensen MP, Dietz R, Witting L, Kyhn L, Riget FF, Laidre K, Ugarte F (2009) Abundance of Atlantic Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) in East Greenland. NAMMCO Scientific Committee Working Group on Walrus SC/17/WWG/07

  • Buckland ST, Anderson DR, Burnham KP, Laake JL, Borchers DL, Thomas L (2001) Introduction to distance sampling. Estimating abundance of biological populations. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Christensen I, Haug T, Øien N (1992) Seasonal distribution, exploitation and present abundance of stocks of large baleen whales (Mysticeti) and sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in Norwegian and adjacent waters. ICES J Mar Sci 49:341–355

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Falk-Petersen S, Pavlov V, Berge J, Cottier F, Kovacs KM, Lydersen C (2015) At the rainbow’s end: high productivity fueled by winter upwelling along an Arctic shelf. Polar Biol 38:5–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finley KJ (1990) Isabella Bay, Baffin Island: an important historical and present-day concentration area for the endangered bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) of the Eastern Canadian Arctic. Arctic 43(2):137–152

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilg O, Born EW (2005) Recent sightings of the bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) in northeast Greenland and the Greenland Sea. Polar Biol 28:796–801

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gotfredsen AB (2010) Faunal remains from the Wollaston Forland—Clavering Ø Region, Northeast Greenland—Thule culture subsistence in a high arctic polynya and ice-edge habitat. Dan J Geogr 110:175–200

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gray RW (1931) The colour of the Greenland Sea and the migration of the Greenland whale and narwhal. Geogr J 78:284–290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gulløv HC (2010) Commercial hunting activities in the Greenland Sea: the impact of the European blubber industry on East Greenland inuit societies. Dan J Geogr 110:357–363

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen RG, Heide-Jørgensen MP, Laidre KL (2012) Recent abundance of bowhead whales in Isabella Bay, Canada. J Cetacean Res Manag 12:317–319

    Google Scholar 

  • Heide-Jørgensen MP, Laidre KL, Nielsen NH, Hansen RG, Røstad A (2013) Winter and spring diving behavior of bowhead whales relative to prey. Anim Biotelemetry 1:1–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirsche H-J, Deming JW (1997) Preface. J Mar Syst 10:9–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirsche H-J, Kwasniewski S (1997) Distribution, reproduction and development of Calanus species in the Northeast Water in relation to environmental conditions. J Mar Syst 10:299–317

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirsche H-J, Muyakshin S, Klages M, Auel H (2006) Aggregation of the Arctic copepod Calanus hyperboreus over the ocean floor of the Greenland Sea. Deep Sea Res I 53:310–320

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hobson KA, Ambrose WG, Reneaud PE (1995) Sources of primary production, benthic-pelagic coupling, and trophic relationships within the Northeast Water Polynya: insights from δ13C and δ15N analysis. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 28:1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jensen JF (2003) Settlements by the North-East Water—the east coast from Nordostrundingen to Dove Bugt. In: Grønnow B, Jensen JF (eds) The northernmost ruins of the Globe. Monographs on Greenland, Man & Society 29, pp 265–327

  • Joiris C (2012) Possible impact of decreasing arctic pack ice on the higher trophic levels—seabirds and marine mammals. Adv Environ Res 23:207–221

    Google Scholar 

  • Joiris C, Robert H (2009) Distributions of seabirds and marine mammals. In: Kattner G (ed.) The expedition of the research vessel “Polarstern” to the Arctic in 2008 (ARK-XXIII/2). Berichte zur Polar und Meeresforschung 590, pp 68–71

  • Joiris C, Joiris A, VanHove F (2010) At-sea distribution of seabirds and marine mammals. In: Kokat W (ed.) The expedition of the research vessel “Polarstern” to the Arctic in 2009 (ARK-XXIV/3). Berichte zur Polar und Meeresforschung 615, pp 112–126

  • Karnovsky N, Ainley DG, Lee P (2007) The impact and importance of production in polynyas to top-trophic predators: three case histories. Elsevier Oceanogr Ser 74:391–410

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lydersen C, Freitas C, Wiig Ø, Bachmann L, Heide-Jørgensen MP, Swift R, Kovacs K (2012) Lost highway not forgotten: satellite tracking of a Bowhead Whale (Balaena mysticetus) from the critically endangered Spitsbergen Stock. Arctic 65:76–86

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Minett PJ, Bignami F, Bühm E, Budéus G, Galbraith PS, Gudmandsen P, Hopkins TS, Ingram RG, Johnson MA, Niebauer HJ, Ramseier RO, Schneider W (1997) A summary of the formation and seasonal progression of the Northeast Water Polynya. J Mar Syst 10:79–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore SE, Stafford KM, Melling H, Berchok C, Wiig Ø, Kovacs KM, Lydersen C, Richter-Menge J (2012) Comparing marine mammals acoustic habitats in Atlantic and Pacific sectors of the High Arctic: year-long records from Fram Strait and the Chukchi Plateau. Polar Biol 35:475–480

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reilly SB, Bannister JL, Best PB, Brown M, Brownell Jr RL, Butterworth DS, Clapham PJ, Cooke J, Donovan G, Urbán J, Zerbini AN (2012) Balaena mysticetus (Svalbard-Barents Sea (Spitsbergen) subpopulation). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.3. www.iucnredlist.org. Accessed 28 January 2015

  • Rekdal SL, Hansen RG, Borchers DL, Bachmann L, Laidre KL, Wiig O, Nielsen NH, Fossette S, Tervo O, Heide-Jørgensen MP (2014) Trends in bowhead whales in West Greenland: Aerial surveys vs. genetic capture-recapture analyses. Mar Mamm Sci 31:133–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogachev KA, Carmack EC, Foreman MGG (2008) Bowhead whales feed on plankton concentrated by estuarine and tidal currents in Academy Bay, Sea of Okhotsk. Cont Shelf Res 28:1811–1826

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scoresby W (1820) An account of the Arctic Regions with a history and description of the Northern Whale-Fishery. Archibald Constable and Co, Edinburgh

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Southwell T (1898) The migration of the right whale (Balaena mysticetus). Nat Sci 12:397–414

    Google Scholar 

  • Stafford KM, Moore SE, Berchok CL, Wiig Ø, Lydersen C, Hansen E, Kalmbach D, Kovacs KM (2012) Spitsbergen’s endangered bowhead whales sing through the polar night. Endanger Species Res 18:95–103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walkusz W, Williams WJ, Harwood LA, Moore SE, Stewart BE, Kwasniewski S (2012) Composition, biomass and energetic content of biota in the vicinity of feeding bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) in the Cape Bathurst upwelling region (south eastern Beaufort Sea). Deep Sea Res I 69:25–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiig Ø (1991) Seven bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus L.) observed at Franz Josef Land in 1990. Mar Mamm Sci 7:316–319

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiig Ø, Bachmann L, Øien N, Kovacs KM, Lydersen C (2010) Observations of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) in the Svalbard area 1940–2009. Polar Biol 33:979–984

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeh JE, Clark CW, George JC, Withrow D, Carroll GM, Koski WR (1993) Current population size and dynamics. In: Burns JJ, Montague J, Cowles CJ (eds) The bowhead whale. Special Publication No 2, the Society for Marine Mammalogy, Lawrence, Kansas, pp 409–489

Download references

Acknowledgments

The walrus survey was financed by Dancea (Danish Cooperation for the Environment in the Arctic, Danish Ministry of the Environment), by the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources and was organized by Erik W. Born. Two anonymous reviewers kindly improved the manuscript.

Human and Animal Rights

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioscience, Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000, Roskilde, Denmark

    David Boertmann & Line A. Kyhn

  2. Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, P.O. Box 570, 3900, Nuuk, Greenland

    Lars Witting

  3. Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, C/o Greenland Representation, Strandgade 91, 2, P.O. Box 1915, 1023, Copenhagen K, Denmark

    Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen

Authors
  1. David Boertmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Line A. Kyhn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Lars Witting
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Boertmann.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Boertmann, D., Kyhn, L.A., Witting, L. et al. A hidden getaway for bowhead whales in the Greenland Sea. Polar Biol 38, 1315–1319 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1695-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1695-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation