CONTENTS 



Introduction 1 



St udy area and data sources 1 



Study area 1 



Data sources 2 



Methods and materials 2 



Ice and land camps 2 



Aerial survey 2 



Laboratory activities 3 



Review of bow head stocks 3 



Spitsbergen-Barents Sea stock 3 



West Greenland or Davis Strait stock 3 



Western Arctic-Bering Sea stock 3 



Okhotsk Sea stock 6 



Field research results 8 



Spring counts of migrating bowheads: ice and land camps 8 



Barrow 8 



Cape Lisburne-Point Hope 9 



Aerial surveys of bowhead and white whales 9 



Discussion and review 17 



Western Arctic-Bering Sea population of bowhead whales 17 



Distribution and migration 17 



Life history and associated information 19 



Reproduction 19 



Food habits 21 



Behavior 22 



Occurrence of bowheads in outer continental shelf lease areas 23 



Outer Bristol Bay-St. George Basin 23 



Navarin Basin 23 



Norton Sound-northern Bering Sea 23 



Hope Basin and northeastern Chukchi Sea 24 



Beaufort Sea '. 25 



East of longitude 150°W 25 



West of longitude 150°W 25 



A question of species identity: bowhead, ingutuk, right whale 26 



Historical evidence 26 



Nomenclature 26 



Geographic isolation 26 



Biological evidence 26 



Morphological features 26 



Sex and size categorization 26 



Genetic-biochemical studies 27 



Conclusion 27 



White whales in Alaska 27 



Abundance and distribution 27 



Migration 28 



Identity of stocks 28 



Life history and associated information 29 



Reproduction 29 



Food habits 29 



Group composition 29 



Recommendations 30 



Actions based on existing knowledge 30 



Proposed research needs 31 



Bering Sea 31 



Chukchi Sea 31 



Beaufort Sea 31 



Non-site specific studies 31 



Acknowledgments 32 



Literature cited 32 



Appendix I 35 



Appendix II 39 



