Abstract.— Seventeen species of 

 parasites representing the Cestoda, 

 Nematoda, Acanthocephaia, and Crus- 

 tacea are reported from three spe- 

 cies of Antarctic whales. Thirty-five 

 sei whales Balaenoptera borealis, 

 106 minke whales B. acutorostrata, 

 and 35 sperm whales Physeter cato- 

 don were examined from latitudes 

 30° to 64° S, and between longitudes 

 106°E to 108°W, during the months 

 of November to March 1976-77. Col- 

 lection localities and regional hel- 

 minth fauna diversity are plotted on 

 distribution maps. 



Antarctic host-parasite records from 

 B. borealis, B. acutorostrata, and P. 

 catodon are updated and tabulated 

 by commercial whaling sectors. 



The use of acanthocephalan para- 

 sites of the genus Corynosoma as 

 potential Antarctic sperm whale 

 stock indicators is discussed. 



Parasite Fauna of Three Species 

 of Antarctic Whales with 

 Reference to Their Use 

 as Potential Stock Indicators 



Murray D. Dailey 



Ocean Studies Institute. California State University 

 Long Beach, California 90840 



Wolfgang K. Vogelbein 



Virginia Institute of Marine Science 

 Gloucester Point, Virginia 23062 



Manuscript accepted 25 February 1991. 

 Fishery Bulletin, U.S. 89:355-365 (1991). 



The great whales of the southern hemi- 

 sphere migrate annually between 

 temperate breeding and Antarctic 

 feeding grounds. However, results of 

 Antarctic whale tagging programs 

 (Brown 1971, 1974, 1978; Ivashin 

 1988) indicate that on the feeding 

 grounds circumpolar movement by 

 sperm and baleen whales is minimal. 

 These whales apparently do not com- 

 prise homogeneous populations 

 whose members mix freely through- 

 out the entire Antarctic. Rather, 

 each species appears to be comprised 

 of functionally distinct breeding 

 stocks, as demonstrated by the hump- 

 back whale Megaptera novaeangliae, 

 which are isolated from one another 

 by vast expanses of open ocean, large 

 land masses, and geographically de- 

 limited feeding grounds (Klumov 

 1963, Mackintosh 1966, Gaskin 1976). 

 If commercial whaling is to resume 

 at some future date (Marine Mammal 

 Commission 1990), and if the whales 

 are to survive, individual breeding 

 stocks must continue to be managed 

 throughout their entire range. Com- 

 mercial quotas encompassing entire 

 oceans are valid only if catch effort 

 is proportionally spread across all 

 stock units present in that ocean. In 

 the past, economic considerations 

 have resulted in concentration of fish- 

 ing effort in localities where whales 

 are most numerous and therefore 



easiest to find (Gaskin 1976). A direct 

 result of this has been the successive 

 overexploitation of several major 

 whale species. To manage Antarctic 

 whaling more effectively, identifica- 

 tion and determination of whale 

 stocks is of high priority (Schevill 

 1971, International Whaling Com- 

 mission 1990). 



The Antarctic whaling grounds 

 were partitioned by the International 

 Whaling Commission into commer- 

 cial baleen and sperm whaling sec- 

 tors (Fig. 1) based on the density 

 distribution analyses of Hjort et al. 

 (1932, 1933, 1935, 1938; as cited in 

 Gaskin 1976). These sectors were 

 thought to reflect whale stock distri- 

 butions, and whaling quotas were 

 previously allotted for individual sec- 

 tors. Biochemical studies (Fujino 

 1960, 1964), morphometries (Omura 

 et al. 1970), scar density analyses 

 (Shevchenko 1974), and marking 

 studies (Brown 1979, Best and But- 

 terworth 1980, Ivashin 1988) support 

 these boundaries but indicate that 

 more than one stock may occupy cer- 

 tain sectors. Definitive range limits 

 are consequently still not known for 

 most stocks of whales. 



There is extensive scientific litera- 

 ture on the helminth fauna of Antarc- 

 tic whales. However, the data have 

 not been analyzed with respect to 

 host distribution and stock identifica- 



355 



