The endangered Spitsbergen bowhead whales' secrets revealed after hundreds of years in hiding

Abstract

Spitsbergen's bowhead whales ( Balaena mysticetus ) were hunted to near extinction in the world's first commercial whaling enterprise; this population clearly remains threatened, but nothing is known about its distribution, making assessment unfeasible. In this study, we document range, movement patterns and habitat preferences of this population, based on tagging done from an icebreaker-based helicopter. Despite their reduced abundance, Spitsbergen's bowhead whales occupy much of their historical range, stretching across the northern Barents Region from East Greenland eastward to Franz Josef Land. Unlike larger bowhead populations to the west, they do not migrate in a classical sense, but rather disperse from wintering grounds in the northernmost parts of their range during spring, returning northward again in autumn, a pattern opposite in terms of directionality compared to other Arctic bowhead whale populations. The extreme affiliation of this population with cold, ice-filled waters is a concern given ongoing climate warming and concomitant rapid sea ice habitat loss.