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The Fin Whale, Balaenoptera Physalus

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The Fin Whale, Balaenoptera Physalus The Fin Whale, Balaenoptera physalus SALLY A. MIZROCH, DALE W. RICE, and JEFFREY M. BREIWICK Introduction generally feed on swarms of small thought to be reproductively isolated crustaceans or fish, which are cap­ from one another, as their migration The fin whale, Balaenoptera tured in their baleen as water is schedules are 6 months out of phase. physalus (Linnaeus, 1758), is the sec­ filtered through. Fin whales do not A chart of the general distribution is ond largest of the whales in the family exhibit as well defined a social or given in Figure 1. Balaenopteridae, second only to the school structure as do toothed whales, From observations made in the blue whale, B. musculus. Fin whales and are usually found solitary or in Antarctic feeding areas during the range in length up to 27 m (88 feet) small groups (Tomilin, 1957). austral summer, it appears that there (Mackintosh, 1942), and are generally is a progression of arrivals by species, Distribution and Migration gray above and white below. Like all with fin whales arriving on the feeding balaenopterids, they have fringed The general migratory pattern of grounds after the blue whales, but baleen plates instead of teeth, and fin whales, like most balaenopterids, before the sei whales, B. borealis. is a movement between poleward Within the fin whale population, The authors are with the National Marine feeding areas in the summer months migration differs by sexual class, with Mammal Laboratory, Northwest and Alaska and lower latitudes in the winter pregnant females arriving early and Fisheries Center, National Marine Fisheries Ser­ vice, NOAA, 7fiXJ Sand Point Way N.E., Bin months. Northern and Southern leaving early (Mackintosh, 1965). CI5700, Seattle, WA 98115. Hemisphere fin whale stocks are There is some evidence that immature Figure I. - Geographic distribution of the fin 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. 20 Marine Fisheries Review whales do not migrate into as high a unit, Fujino (1960) describes several these stocks. For example, no whales latitude as do the older whales fin whale subpopulations in this marked off north Norway have been (Mackintosh, 1965). region. According to histological and captured off Iceland (IWC, 1983). Catch statistics indicate that in the marking experiments, he has found However, no electrophoretic (or Antarctic, and presumably in the an eastern and western group that other) studies have yet been presented Northern Hemisphere as well (Ceta­ may intermingle around the Aleutian that would indicate whether these cean and Turtle Assessment Pro­ Islands, as well as an isolated stock in stocks show genetic differences (Ar­ gram1), fin whales are distributed the East China Sea. Fujino also sur­ nason, 1981). In addition, Schmidly over a wider range of latitudes than mises, based on marking studies, that (1981) speculates that there may be an either the blue or sei whales. Fin the stock off British Columbia may be isolated stock in the northern Gulf of whales can be found from the ice edge isolated as well. Mark recoveries in­ Mexico. in Arctic and Antarctic waters to dicate, however, that the animals that Southern Hemisphere lower latitudes of around 20° Nand S winter off southern California range (Jonsgllrd, 1966a; Mackintosh, 1966; from central California to the Gulf of The Antarctic has been divided by Leatherwood et al., 1982). Alaska in summer, and an isolated the IWC into six (formerly five) Because their migrations are con­ population may be resident in the statistical areas. They are based (to ducted in the open ocean rather than Gulf of California. There may well be some degree) on humpback whale, along coastlines, it is difficult to track other subgroups, but there has been Megaptera novaeangliae, breeding fin whales from summer feeding areas little research directed to this ques­ and feeding concentrations (Mackin­ back to their winter grounds. Conse­ tion. tosh, 1942; 1966), but these areas also quently, we have scant knowledge of apply somewhat to fin whale popula­ tions (Brown, 1962). Since the An­ the location of winter breeding North Atlantic grounds. tarctic harvests (and hence most The International Whaling Com­ research) occurred on feeding grounds Stock Identity mISSIOn recognizes the following rather than breeding grounds, catch Because hunting occurs in feeding stocks in the North Atlantic: North and mark-recapture data (Brown, rather than breeding areas, the stocks Norway, West Norway and Faroe 1962) tell us only of dispersal while described herein refer to feeding ag­ Islands, Spain - Portugal- British feeding. Evidence indicates that fin gregations rather than breeding Isles, East Greenland - Iceland, West (and blue) whales disperse more than groups. There is a chance that whales Greenland, Newfoundland - Labra­ humpback whales while feeding; con­ that summer on different feeding dor, and Nova Scotia. There is no sequently, different breeding groups grounds intermingle on the same evidence that indicates mixing among are likely to overlap in the various breeding grounds. However, given the history of exploitation in the North Atlantic (e.g., where the industry moved from area to area after suc­ cessively overharvesting what ap­ peared to be localized populations), there are indications that there is some separation between the stocks found on di fferent feeding grounds (Mackintosh, 1965; Jonsgllrd, I966b; Mitchell, 1974; Gaskin, 1982; Tl1ln­ nessen and Johnsen, 1982). North Pacific Although the International Whal­ ing Commission (IWC) considers the North Pacific as one management ICetacean and Turtle Assessment Program. 1982. A characterization of marine mammals and turtles in the middle and North Atlantic areas of the U.S. outer continental shelf. Un­ ~...-/- - - pub!. manuscr.. 450 p. plus appendices. Graduate School of Oceanography, Univ. R.I.. -&&t$U-- "' ~ Kingston. RI 02881. (Prep. for U.S. Dep. [nter. Bur. Land Manage. under Contracr AA551­ A fin whale, surfacing in the North Atlantic off Spain, reveals its prominent CT8-48.) dorsal fin which gives the species its name. Photo by S. Mizroch. 46(4),1984 21 of age (Lockyer, 1972). Mature females bear a calf every 2 or 3 years. Natural Mortality Important natural mortality factors are unknown. The fin whale is relatively free of ectoparasites. Except for kidney worms, Crassicauda sp., the few endoparasitic helminths that infest the fin whale usually appear to be nonpathogenic. Predation on adult fin whales by killer whales, Orcinus orca, is rare but may occur more often in younger animals. Natural mortality rates are difficult to estimate, but appear to be about 4 percent/year in adults and perhaps Head of a fin whale (lower jaw uppermost). The characteristic white plates on somewhat greater in immature the front half of the right baleen plate row are clearly visible. Source: Historical animals (Allen, 1980). Photography Collection, University of Washington Libraries. Exploitation and Population Size History of Exploitation areas (Mackintosh, 1942, 1966; Kawamura, 1982). Since fin whales, like most other Brown, 1962). Breeding areas have In the autumn, fin whales migrate balaenopterids, are fast swimmers not yet been identified, so it is not several thousand miles toward and sink when killed, they were dif­ clear how closely the statistical areas equatorial waters. They fast almost ficult for most whalers to catch, until relate to breeding groups. For completely for several months during modern whaling techniques using the management purposes, however, the the winter, living off their fat stores. explosive harpoon and the steam IWC considers each statistical area to powered catcher boat were introduced Reproduction represent one stock unit. in Norway in 1864. However, the The reproductive strategy of fin Japanese perfected a technique in the Life History and Ecology whales is closely integrated and syn­ mid-17th century in which whales Feeding chronized with their annual feeding were netted, attached to a float, and cycle. Their basic reproductive cycle is then hauled to shore for processing. During the summer, most fin biennial, consisting of mating during With this method they were able to whales inhabit high latitudes and the the winter, birth of the large single catch a number of fin and sei whales, cold eastern boundary currents where precocial calf about a year later on the but on a much smaller scale than food production is high. They range winter grounds, and weaning of the possible with modern techniques mostly offshore and tend to be calf before the end of the following (Tj1lnnessen and Johnsen, 1982). nomadic. They feed primarily on summer on the feeding grounds North Pacific species of euphausiids, or krill, that (Mackintosh and Wheeler, 1929; congregate in dense shoals near the Laws, 1961). Although small numbers of fin surface-notably Euphausia superba Conception occurs over a 5-month whales were taken by the Japanese in the Antarctic; E. pacifica, Thy­ period during the winter. Females are from around the middle of the 17th sanoessa inermis, T. longipes, T. spin­ usually monestrous, but if they fail to century, large numbers were taken ifera in the North Pacific; and Mega­ conceive, they may, in rare cases, only after modern whaling was intro­ nyctiphanes norvegica and T. inermis ovulate two or three times during one duced to Japan at the start of the 20th in the North Atlantic (Nemoto, 1959). estrous cycle. A postpartum estrus is century. Catches of fin whales off In the Northern Hemisphere, fin very rare. Mean length at birth is Japan peaked at 1,040 in 1914, and whales often supplement their diet about 6 m (20 feet). Calves are wean­ then continued at levels ranging from with small schooling fishes such as ed at an age of 7-11 months (Mackin­ 300 to 400/year until World War II. capelin, Mallotus villosus; anchovies, tosh and Wheeler, 1929; Best, 1966) After World War II, catches began to Engraulis mordax; and herring, when they have attained a mean body decline, and ended entirely in 1975 Clupea harengus, and may even feed length of about 12 m (40 feet).
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