Considerable increase in bowhead, blue, humpback and fin whales numbers in the Greenland Sea and Fram Strait between 1979 and 2014

Abstract

In the frame of our long-term study of cetacean abundance and distribution in polar marine ecosystems begun in 1979, a drastic increase in the bowhead Balaena mysticetus North Atlantic “stock” was observed from 2005 on, by a factor 30 and more: from 0.0002 per count between 1979 and 2003 (one individual, n=5430 counts) to 0.06 per count from 2005 to 2014 (34 individuals, n=6000 counts); the most significant part of the increase occurred from 2007 on. Other large whale species ( Mysticeti ) showed a similar pattern, mainly blue Balaenoptera musculus , humpback Megaptera novaeanglia e and fin whales Balaenoptera physalus . This large and abrupt increase cannot logically be due to population growth, nor to survival of a hidden “relic” population, nor to a changing geographical distribution within the European Arctic, taking into account the importance of the coverage during this study. Our interpretation is that individuals passed through the Northwest and/ or Northeast Passages from the larger Pacific stock into the almost depleted North Atlantic populations coinciding with a period of very low ice coverage —at the time the lowest ever recorded. In contrast, no clear evolution was detected neither for sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus nor for Minke whale Balaenoptera acusrostrata . Citation: Joiris C R. Considerable increase in bowhead, blue, humpback and fin whales numbers in the Greenland Sea and Fram Strait between 1979 and 2014. Adv Polar Sci, 2016, 27: 117-125, doi:10.13679/j.advps.2016.2.00117