. The Canadian field-naturalist. 352 The Canadian Field-Naturalist Vol. 102. Figure I. Drawing of the Fin Whale, Balaenoptera physalus, (Courtesy Department of Fisheries and Oceans, drawing by M. Service). in 1972, followed by more rigid control of the harvests by the International Whaling Commis- sion (IWC) starting in 1976 and subsequently by a complete moratorium on the killing of all whales, has provided the necessary respite for stocks to begin to rebuild. Distribution The Fin Whale has a world-wide distribution which is concentrated in temperate, arctic and antarctic waters (Figure 2). T
. The Canadian field-naturalist. 352 The Canadian Field-Naturalist Vol. 102. Figure I. Drawing of the Fin Whale, Balaenoptera physalus, (Courtesy Department of Fisheries and Oceans, drawing by M. Service). in 1972, followed by more rigid control of the harvests by the International Whaling Commis- sion (IWC) starting in 1976 and subsequently by a complete moratorium on the killing of all whales, has provided the necessary respite for stocks to begin to rebuild. Distribution The Fin Whale has a world-wide distribution which is concentrated in temperate, arctic and antarctic waters (Figure 2). They tend to avoid the icepack and migrate toward the equator in winter, returning north (and/or south) in summer to feed in the productive coastal waters characterized by upwellings caused by coastal shelves or interfacing currents of differing temperatures (Gaskin 1972; Sergeant 1977; Nature Conservancy Council 1979). Southern Stocks Fin Whales are widely dispersed throughout the southern oceans and the identification of separate stocks* has been based on mark recoveries and analysis of migrations (Brown 1970), sociological evidence (Fujino 1964), morphometric measure- ments (Laws 1960) and iodine levels of Fin Whale oil (Lund 1951). However, the whales appear to be dispersed in their breeding areas and it is possible that Fin Whales exist in patchy continua, with one breeding stock in each of the southern oceans. Northern Stocks North Pacific: The distinctiveness of Fin Whale stocks in the North Pacific is not well documented (Mitchell 1973) but it is generally considered that there are two populations (Fujino 1960; Nishiwaki 1966). An eastern (east in respect of the Pacific Ocean) population summers in the Chukchi Sea and Bering Strait down to the coast of southern California and a western population along the Asian side to Japan (Figure 2). A small western sub-population exists in the East China Sea (Gaskin 1972). Some authors have arbitrarily divided the whole population i
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