and whaling activities refer to Marquette (1976, 1977 14 ), 

 Bockstoce (footnote 11), and Marquette and Bockstoce (1980). 



Okhotsk Sea Stock 



Bowheads were generally found in the northern and western 

 Okhotsk Sea in spring and summer. They once occurred as 

 far north as Penzhinskaya Inlet and as far west as Tchantar 

 Bay (Townsend 1935). During spring, they were also taken as 

 far south as Korea and Japan (Townsend 1935; Nishiwaki 

 and Kasuya 1970). Today, their seasonal movements are un- 



known. During the late 1850's, as it became more difficult to 

 find bowheads in the Bering Sea, whalers turned their atten- 

 tion to the Okhotsk Sea, and soon depleted this stock. Initial 

 stock size has been estimated at 6,500 (IWC 1978). Although 

 inconclusive, recent results of Bockstoce and Botkin (foot- 

 note 13) leads us to conclude that intermixing between the 

 Okhotsk Sea and the Bering Sea stocks may have taken place 

 in the past, but probably not since the late 19th century. 

 Sighting records supplied by A. A. Berzin' 5 indicate that 

 bowheads still occur in the Okhotsk Sea: 16 bowheads were 

 sighted during surveys in 1973-74. Fifty-five bowheads were 

 seen in the south-southwest Okhotsk Sea during an August 

 aerial survey in 1979 (Berzin and Doroshenko 1981). 



"Marquette, W. 1977. The 1976 catch of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) 

 by Alaskan Eskimos, with a review of the fishery, 1973 - 1976, and a biological 

 summary of the species. Processed rep., 80 p. Natl. Mar. Mammal Lab., North- 

 west and Alaska Fish. Cent., Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv., NOAA, 7600 Sand Point 

 WayNE., Bldg. 32, Seattle, WA98115. 



"A. A. Berzin, Pacific Scientific Research Institute of Fisheries Oceanography 

 (TINRO). 20 Lenin St., Vladivostok, U.S.S.R., pers. commun. 7 January 1976. 



Figure 2. — Continued. 



