November-2 December 1988. The meeting was devoted entirely 

 to a discussion of the draft plan and the critical issues to 

 be addressed. 



The draft plan developed by the Service did not include 

 all parts essential for a recovery plan, and there was general 

 agreement among Team members that substantial additions and 

 revisions would be needed. Therefore, the Team developed a 

 schedule whereby Team members would prepare a recommended 

 revised draft plan for submission to the Service early in 

 1989. At the end of 1988, the Recovery Team was in the process 

 of developing its recommended revised draft recovery plan. 

 The Recovery Team scheduled a second meeting for early March 

 1989 to review a revised draft, which it expects to provide 

 to the Service shortly thereafter. 



Bowhead Whale (Balaena mysticetus) 



Bowhead whales are circumpolar in distribution and make 

 up at least five or six separate populations. Over-exploitation 

 by commercial whalers between 1600 and 1900 reduced all 

 populations to extremely low levels, and one population, the 

 Spitsbergen population north of Scandinavia, may be extinct. 

 The largest surviving population is in the western Arctic, 

 where animals migrate seasonally between the Bering Sea and 

 the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. The population is important 

 to Alaska Natives who continue to hunt bowhead whales for 

 subsistence and cultural purposes. 



Consideration by the International Whaling Commission 



The International Whaling Commission (IWC) reviews infor- 

 mation on the status of the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort Seas 

 stock of bowhead whales and establishes guotas for aboriginal 

 subsistence whaling. During its 1987 Annual Meeting, the IWC 

 adopted an aboriginal subsistence whaling quota for 1988 of 

 35 strikes for this stock. As noted in Chapter V, the IWC 

 considered new information on bowhead whales and subsistence 

 needs during its 1988 Annual Meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, 

 to develop a recommendation on future quotas. Based on this 

 new information and analyses presented during the IWC • s 

 Scientific Committee meeting, a revised estimate of the size 

 of the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort Seas stock of bowhead whales 

 was accepted. The new estimate is 7,800 whales with a 95 

 percent confidence interval of between 5,600 and 10,600 animals. 



Also during the 1988 IWC meeting, a report prepared for 

 the U.S. Department of the Interior on Alaska Eskimo subsistence 

 needs was considered. The report, entitled "Quantification 

 of Subsistence and Cultural Need for Bowhead Whales by Alaska 

 Eskimos," concluded that current annual subsistence and cultural 



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