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The Blue Whale, Balaenoptera Musculus

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The Blue Whale, Balaenoptera Musculus The Blue Whale, Balaenoptera musculus SALLY A. MIZROCH, DALE W. RICE, and JEFFREY M. BREIWICK Introduction pers. They are members of the family migrations each year, traveling from Balaenopteridae, all of which have winter grounds in low latitudes to The blue whale, Balaenoptera mus­ fringed baleen plates rather than summer feeding grounds in the Arctic culus (Linnaeus, 1758), is not only the teeth. Baleen whales graze through or Antarctic high latitudes. Since largest of the whales, it is also the swarms of small crustaceans known most whaling occurred on the high­ largest living animal, and may range as krill, and capture the krill in their latitude feeding grounds, the distribu­ in size to over 30 m (100 feet) and baleen as water is filtered through. tion of these whales in these areas is weigh up to 160 metric tons (t) Like most balaenopterids, blue whales fairly well known. (Mackintosh, 1942). Blue whales are exhibit no well defined social or In Antarctic waters, for example, entirely bluish-gray in color, except schooling structure, and in most of blue whales and minke whales, Bal­ for the white undersides of the flip- their range they are generally solitary aenoptera acutorostrata, are found in or found in small groups (Tomilin, the coldest waters closest to the ice 1957). edge, with fin, B. physalus, and sei The authors are with the National Marine whales, B. borealis, distributed, Mammal Laboratory, Northwest and Alaska Distribution and Migration Fisheries Center, National Marine Fisheries respectively, in somewhat lower Service, NOAA, 7600 Sand Point Way N.E., Blue whales are found in all oceans latitudes (Mackintosh, 1965). A Bin C15700, Seattle, WA 98115. and undertake extensive north-south distinct subspecies called the pygmy Figure I. - Geographical distribution of the blue whale. Simple hatching indicates the summer feeding grounds. Stippling indicates distribution during autumn, winter, and spring; records are scarce during these seasons, and the distribution is, to a large extent, speculative. 46(4),1984 15 A blue whale surfacing in the North Atlantic off Spain reveals its mottled back and small step-like dorsal fin. Photo by S. Mizroch. blue whale, B. m. brevicauda, in­ grouped into four large geographic (primarily the Hebrides), and New­ habits the southern Indian Ocean regions: The North Pacific, North foundland. The pattern of exploita­ south to lat. 55°S (Ichihara, 1966). Atlantic, northern Indian Ocean, and tion generally was of high catches in The Northern Hemisphere distribu­ Southern Hemisphere. Within these one location over a 10- to 15-year tion of blue whales is not as clear-cut. large areas there are further stock period, followed by a sharp decline in Jonsgard (1%6) reports blue whales at separations. catches, after which time the industry the edge of the pack ice in the North moved to another location and North Pacific Atlantic. Nishiwaki (I 966), using repeated the pattern (TIDnnessen and catch statistics, fixes the northern Blue whales have been hunted in Johnsen, 1982). Jonsgiird (I955) con­ limits in the North Pacific at the Aleu­ Japanese and Korean waters, off cluded that these localized depletions tian Islands, although Sleptsov (I 96 I) Kamchatka, in the Aleutian Islands, in blue whale stocks were a result of saw blue whales as far north as the and in smaller numbers off California excessive hunting, and assumed some Chukchi Sea. and British Columbia, but very little is separation in stock units. No specific The winter distribution of blue known of movements and stock studies have been conducted to test whales remains something of a boundaries of blue whales in the this, however, and the IWC considers mystery. Since blue whales migrate to North Pacific. They are found from the North Atlantic stock as one unit and from winter grounds in the open the Chukchi Sea south to the waters for management purposes. ocean, away from coastlines where off Taiwan and Costa Rica (Rice, Northern Indian Ocean they may be observed, scientists have 1978; Leatherwood, et aI., 1982), but yet to delineate these areas in either there is no speculation as to stock Blue whales have been reported the Northern or Southern Hemi­ units in this broad area, and the Inter­ year-round in the Gulf of Aden, Per­ spheres (Jonsgard, 1966; Mackintosh, national Whaling Commission (IWC) sian Gulf, and Arabian Sea, eastward 1966). Summer and assumed winter has not set specific boundaries. across the Bay of Bengal to Burma distributions are shown in Figure I. and the Strait of Malacca. Nothing is North Atlantic known of the seasonal movements of Stock Identity Blue whales have been hunted off these animals. A temporarily stranded northern Norway, Svalbard (Spits­ female gave birth to a calf in Trin­ The stocks of blue whales can be bergen), Iceland, the British Isles comalee Harbour, Sri Lanka, in 16 Marine Fisheries Review Rear view of a blue whale surfacing off Spain, showing the broad lunate tail flukes. Photo by S. Mizroch. December 1946. The blue whales in Hemisphere breeding stock units. For appears to be off the coast of Baja this area probably constitute a management purposes, however, the California, where they have been seen separate stock and have never been IWC considers the whales in each of feeding on shoals of the pelagic red hunted. the IWC statistical areas to be sep­ crab, Pleuroncodes planipes (Rice, arate stock units. 1978). Southern Hemisphere Blue whales, like most other baleen whales, migrate several thousand Life History and Ecology The main feeding areas in the miles toward equatorial waters in the Antarctic were separated into five autumn. During the winter they fast (and later six) statistical areas by the Feeding for several months, living off their fat IWC. These areas were developed reserves. based on distributions of humpback Most blue whales spend the sum­ whale, Megaptera novaeangliae mer in high latitudes and the cold cur­ (Mackintosh, 1966), and mayor may rents on the eastern sides of the Reproduction not indicate stock differences in other oceans, where food production is balaenopterids, such as blue whales. high. They often range offshore, but The basic reproductive cycle of the Mark-recapture experiments are in­ less so than fin whales, and tend to be blue whale is biennial. Mating takes conclusive, and although many nomadic. The blue whale is virtually place over a 5-month period during whales are recovered near where they monophagous, and feeds almost ex­ the winter. Females appear to be were marked, some are recovered one clusively on euphausiids, or krill, that seasonally monoestrous, but if they or more areas away. Brown (1962) congregate in dense shoals near the fail to conceive, they may ovulate two hypothesized that blue and fin whales surface-notably: Euphausia super­ or three times during one estrous cy­ disperse more on the feeding grounds ba, E. crystallorophias, and E. vallen­ cle. The single calf, born after a gesta­ than do humpback whales, and con­ tini in the Antarctic; E. pacifica, tion period of about 1 year, measures sequently there is overlap among Thysanoessa inermis, T. longipes, and about 7 m (23 feet) long. The calf is various breeding stocks. Since blue T. spinijera in the North Pacific; and weaned late the following summer whales, unlike humpbacks, have no Meganyctiphanes norvegica and T. when it is about 7 months old and 16 well defined breeding areas, it is im­ inermis in the North Atlantic m (53 feet) long. Both sexes attain possible to delineate the Southern (Nemoto, 1959). The only exception sexual maturity at an age 5-15 years. 46(4),1984 17 Natural Mortality Johnsen (1982), the peak catch of in the Antarctic, enabling the industry Important natural mortality factors blue whales (239) in the northeastern to process whales wherever they were are unknown. The blue whale is rela­ Pacific occurred off California in found. Since catcher boats were no tively free of ectoparasites and en­ 1926. The catch of blue whales south longer limited to operating near land doparasites (Rice, 1978). They do not of the Aleutians averaged about 50 a stations or moored factory ships, blue even harbor the stomach worms, year until 1930. In these areas, as in whale catches, which had ranged Anisakis sp., which are nearly ubiq­ the North Atlantic, catches rose, from about 2,000 to 6,000 per year uitous in virtually all other cetacean peaked, and declined in a fairly short from 1914 through 1924, suddenly in­ species; presumably this is because period. During the late 1950's and ear­ creased from 12,734 in 1928-29 to blue whales do not eat fish, which are ly 1960's, Japan caught about 70 blue 29,410 in 1930-31. the host of the infective stage of the whales per year near the Aleutians, Although the scale was different, worms. Predation on blue whales by but by 1966 IWC regulations the general pattern of exploitation in killer whales, Orcinus orca, is rare. prevented the capture of blue whales. the Antarctic was the same as Natural mortality rates have not been everywhere else. By 1936-37, only established, but may be considered to North At/antic 14,304 blue whales were taken, and by 1937-38 the fin whale catch (28,009) be similar to those of the fin whale­ When modern whaling began in the was nearly double the blue whale about 4 percent per year in adults North Atlantic, blue whales were the catch (14,923) (Fig. 2). Afterward, the (Allen, 1980). preferred species due to their great blue whale catch declined steadily un­ size. The first catches occurred off til it ceased with the ban on blue northern Norway in the late 1860's, Exploitation and Population Size whale catches in 1967.
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