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Fishery Bulletin 102(4) 



in past research (Calambokidis et al., 1990). For hump- 

 back whales, photographs were taken of the ventral 

 side of the tail flukes. For killer whales, the dorsal fin 

 and surrounding saddle-patch area were photographed 

 from both sides. 



Photographs of individuals were first compared to 

 those identified in the same region. To analyze inter- 

 change with other regions, we compared these individu- 

 als with existing catalogs to obtain sighting histories. 

 For humpback whales, a catalog was used of over 1000 

 humpback whales identified since 1986 along the West 



Coast. The regions used for comparison were Oregon, 

 northern California (Oregon-California border to Pt. 

 Arena i, northern central California (Pt. Arena to north 

 of Monterey Bay), southern central California (north 

 of Monterey Bay to Pt. Conception! and southern Cali- 

 fornia (southern California Bight). For killer whales, 

 whales were matched to existing catalogs (Bigg et al., 

 1987; Ford et al., 1994; Black et al., 1997). All iden- 

 tifications and group determinations were confirmed 

 by one of the authors tDKEi or Graeme Ellis (Dept. of 

 Fisheries and Oceans. Nanaimo. British Columbia). 



