Characterization of 42 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for the bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) for use in discriminating populations

Abstract

The bowhead whale was hunted extensively in the North Pacific and Atlantic. Historic abundance is estimated to have been at least 30,000 (Burns et al. 1993) in the North Pacific and 12,000 in the western North Atlantic (Hudson Bay and Davis Strait stocks; Rugh et al. 2003). By the end of commercial whaling, each population was estimated to have numbered fewer than 1000 individuals. Since “economic extinction” in the early 1900s, populations have generally rebounded, now reaching approximately 11,000 in the Bering/Chukchi/Beaufort seas (BCB) stock of the North Pacific (George et al. 2004) and conservatively estimated at 5,000 in the western North Atlantic (Dueck et al. 2007). A small population in the Sea of Okhotsk (Russia) was reduced from an estimated 3,000–6,000 to probably fewer than 500 (Endangered in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature [IUCN] Red List; IUCN 2008), and a population in the eastern North Atlantic, called the Spitsbergen stock (Critically Endangered), was reduced from >25,000 to probably fewer than 100 surviving today (Rugh et al. 2003). BCB bowhead whales remain listed as Endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and are currently protected from commercial hunting under International Whaling Commission treaties. Subsistence hunting continues in Alaska, Russia, and Canada with an annual permitted biological removal (PBR) set by the International Whaling Commission of 95 whales in the western Arctic (BCB and Okhotsk stocks), although