Bowhead Whale | NWT Species at Risk

Bowhead Whale

Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort population

Balaena mysticetus

NWT List of Species at Risk:

Not applicable

NWT SARC Assessment:

Not applicable

Federal Species at Risk Act list:

Special Concern

COSEWIC Assessment:

Special Concern

NWT General Status Rank:

Secure

Description:

The Bowhead Whale is a large baleen whale (baleen is a flexible material found in long, thin plates along the jaw which act to filter small food particles rather than using regular teeth). The Bowhead Whale has a stocky barrel-shaped body and a large head that takes up about 30% of its length. Its body is mostly black; white markings appear with age on the chin, fluke tips and tail. Bowhead Whales do not have a dorsal fin and their pectoral flippers are small and paddle-shaped. The upper jaw is bowed sharply upward with an average of 330 baleen plates on each side. Adult females are slightly larger than adult males.

Weight: 75 to 100 t (82 to 110 tons). Length: Females, 16 to 18 m (53 to 59 ft); Males, 14 to 17 m (46 to 56 ft).

Report Bowhead Whale sightings to WILDLIFEOBS@gov.nt.ca

Distribution

Bowheads are circumpolar in their distribution. The Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort population of the Bowhead Whale spends the winter in the western and central Bering Sea where there is adequate open water and broken pack ice. In spring, the whales migrate north and east to their summer feeding grounds in the eastern Beaufort Sea.

Range map information

Habitat and biology

Bowhead Whales live in marine waters ranging from open water to thick, unconsolidated pack ice. They are able to use their head and back to break ice over 20 cm thick, in order to breathe.

Bowhead Whales filter feed mostly on dense aggregations of small invertebrates or “zooplankton” (mainly copepods, but also euphasiids, mysids, amphipods and isopods). Satellite tagging studies help identify migration routes and areas frequented by Bowhead Whales in the western Arctic, which may indicate important feeding or congregation areas.

Females give birth every three or four years to a single calf, usually during the spring migration. Bowhead Whales can live to be over 150 years of age. A weapon fragment found in a Bowhead Whale caught off the Alaskan coast in May 2007 dated back to 1879.

Population size and trends

Bowhead Whales are still recovering from commercial whaling, which ended in the early 20th century when hunting became unprofitable. The population is currently believed to number over 12,000 individuals and may be at or near the pre-whaling population size.

Threats

Bowhead Whales are known to sometimes be displaced for short periods of time by industrial activity such as seismic surveys and oil and gas development. Potential long-term effects on Bowhead Whales from this displacement are unknown.

Climatic factors, which influence ice conditions, potential predators and prey availability, may impact the survival and/or distribution of this whale.

Protection and recovery

In 1980 and 1986, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) assessed Bowhead Whale as Endangered. The Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort population of Bowhead Whale was then assessed as Special Concern in 2005 and again in 2009. The Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort population was listed as Special Concern under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA) in 2007. A national management plan for this population is available on the federal Species at Risk Public Registry.

In Canadian waters, the Fisheries Act and Marine Mammal Regulations make it illegal to hunt or disturb whales except for subsistence use.

Area:

Inuvialuit