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dance, may very well be energetically "correct." 



P 3-22/1 4/L 8-10: Maximum density sampled in 1989 was 331,000 /m^ in a 

 surface layer (Wishner et a/., in prep.). 



P 3-23/5 5/L 4: Updated information shows a somewhat longer mean calving 

 interval, somewhere around 3.7-3.9 years (Knowlton et a/., in prep.). 



P 3-23/1 6/L 2-4: How is a 13-14 month gestation period consistent with concep- 

 tion in the summer? Peak calving is in December-February, therefore peak 

 conception would be October-January. Right whales exhibit surface-active 

 group behavior (the presumed sexual activity) in every known habitat from 

 spring through fall, and we expect to see them doing the same thing when we 

 finally locate their winter habitat(s). 



P 3-23/1 5/L 6-7: In only one case has a right whale in this population had two 

 calves two years apart, which this implies. All other females wait at least one 

 year ("resting" year) between weaning and becoming pregnant with the 

 subsequent calf. 



P 3-24/1 3/L 3-4: In March of 1935, a right whale calf was shot and killed off 

 Florida by fishermen, who also tried to kill the mother. A photograph of the 

 adult was published in the New York Herald Tribune. That individual has been 

 photographed and re-identified in April 1959 in Cape Cod Bay, in April 1980 

 in the Great South Channel, in October 1985 with a calf in Cape Cod Bay and 

 off Plum Island, and most recently in March 1992 in Cape Cod Bay. Since it 

 was already a mature adult in 1935, in 1992 it must have been at least 63 

 years old (Kraus et al., in prep.). 



P 3-24/1 5/L 1 1-12: The estimate of humpback population abundance in Braham 

 (1984) is likely significantly out of date. All of the individual estimates he 

 included are now at least a decade old. At annual rates of increase as high as 

 the 10.3% maximum rate cited on p. 3-38, the current world-wide population 

 could be as large as 33,000. 



P 3-25/Fig. 3-6: There is no Kraus et al. (1991) in the literature cited, so this is 

 probably from Kraus et al. (1987). It appears 'that the data only go through 

 1986. It would have been enlightening to know how many of the non-M/C 

 sightings in June-November were also from 1986. 



P 3-26/1 3/L 4: What is the evidence/source for humpback calving around Ireland. 

 All other humpback calving grounds 1 am aware of are in tropical waters. 

 Humpbacks are known from, and songs have been recorded in, the Cape 



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