. The Canadian field-naturalist. 374 The Canadian Field-Naturalist Vol. 102. Figure 3. Gray Whales were hunted for subsistence by the Makah Indians at Neah Bay, Washington, into the early twentieth century. Photograph by Asahel Curtis, 1910, courtesy of University of Washington, Northwest Coast Collection. West Pacific Stock: There is a sparse record of aboriginal whaling in the Sea of Okhotsk, but it seems very likely that Gray Whales were hunted by the ancient inhabitants of its shores (Krupnik 1984). Gray Whales were a part of the catch in Japan in the extensive harpoon fishery begun by the
. The Canadian field-naturalist. 374 The Canadian Field-Naturalist Vol. 102. Figure 3. Gray Whales were hunted for subsistence by the Makah Indians at Neah Bay, Washington, into the early twentieth century. Photograph by Asahel Curtis, 1910, courtesy of University of Washington, Northwest Coast Collection. West Pacific Stock: There is a sparse record of aboriginal whaling in the Sea of Okhotsk, but it seems very likely that Gray Whales were hunted by the ancient inhabitants of its shores (Krupnik 1984). Gray Whales were a part of the catch in Japan in the extensive harpoon fishery begun by the sixteenth century (Figure 2) and the net fishery begun in the second half of the seventeenth century (Omura 1974, 1984). Large numbers of Gray Whales were also caught in the Sea of Okhotsk, north of 53° N, by American pelagic whalers, whose main target was the Bowhead Whale {Balaena mysticetus), beginning in the late 1840s (Henderson 1984: 176-177). This fishery declined by the 1880s. Modern (Norwegian) whaling began on the coast of Korea in about 1903, and by 1933 the catch of Gray Whales had declined to a very low level (Andrews 1914; Mizue 1951). Although single Gray Whales killed off the northern Kurile Islands in 1942 and off the southeast coast of Honshu in 1959 and 1968 have been considered as possible "strays" from the east Pacific stock (Mizue 1951; Nishiwaki and Kasuya 1970; Bowen 1974), we agree with Brownell and Chun (1977) that these whales more likely belonged to the much-reduced west Pacific stock. No direct exploitation of west Pacific Gray Whales is known to occur at present {see Brownell and Chun 1977 and Brownell 1981 regarding recent Korean whaUng). The killing of Gray Whales by fishermen when the whales are found near fishing gear may go largely unnoticed {see Nishiwaki and Kasuya 1970; Ivashin 1986). East Pacific Stock: There is a long history of aboriginal whaling for baleen whales, including Gray Whales, from as far south on the American coas
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