ferred from Townsend's (1935) charts which locate by month 

 bowhead whales taken by Yankee whalers (Fig. 2). The whal- 

 ing grounds were within lat. 53° to 73°N and long. 120°W to 

 175°E. Whaling occurred in the Bering Sea from April to 

 July and, in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, generally from 

 August to October. The lack of harvest records north of the 

 Bering Strait during April and May is explained by the avoid- 

 ance of heavy ice by whalers. Very few whales were taken in 

 the eastern Bering Sea, suggesting that the species was for- 

 merly distributed off the continental shelf in the southwest 

 Bering Sea and over the shelf in the west central and northern 

 Bering Sea during the winter, spring, and early summer 

 months. 



Initial stock size estimates range from 9,000 to 40,000 

 (IWC 1978; Bockstoce and Botkin 1980"), with a best esti- 

 mate of about 18-20,000 (IWC 1978; Breiwick et al. 1980; 

 Bockstoce footnote 1 1). The stock was exploited commercially 

 from 1848 to approximately 1921. An estimate of the popula- 

 tion size in the early 1900's is 600-2,000 (Eberhardt and 

 Breiwick 1980). For further details of commercial exploitation 



"Bocksloce, J. R.. and D. B. Botkin. 1980. The historical status and reduc- 

 tion of the western arctic bowhead whale (Balaena mysiicelus) population by the 

 pelagic whaling industry, 1848-1914. Unpubl. rep., 120 p. Natl. Mar. Mammal 

 Lab.. Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv., NOAA, 7600 Sand Point Way NE., Bldg. 32, 

 Seattle, WA 98! 15. 



ARCTIC OCEAN A 



Beaufort Sea 



Figure 2. — Locations where bowhead whales were harvested by Yankee whalers in A,B) April and May 1848-1919; C,D) June and July 

 1848-1919: and E-G) August, September, and October 1849-1919. Each black dot represents a single harvested whale. Data redrafted by 

 month from Townsend (1935). 



