The NASC survey also counted minke whales and arrived at the figure of 9,000. The area surveyed partially overlaps the areas covered by the Norwegian North Sea minke whale surveys of 1989 and 1990, but also includes other areas. There would seem to be a reasonable degree of conformity between the results of our counts and those of the Norwegians, says Heide Jørgensen of Greenland’s fisheries research. This is confirmed by Norwegian researcher, Nils Øien of the Marine Research Institute in Bergen. We have not gone through it all in detail , but at first looks there would seem to be good compliance between the figures for the areas covered by both counts.

Øien says that the NASC figures for the areas that were not covered by the Norwegian North East Atlantic counts cannot simply be added to the North East Atlantic estimate. The distribution of minke whales in the North East Atlantic can vary from year to year and the counts must therefore be carried out in the same year if the figures from the different areas are to be added together, says Øien. He adds that the results of the NASC survey do, however, indicate that there are minke whales belonging to the North East Atlantic stock that are not represented in the International Whaling Commission’s 1992 stock estimate which was based on the Norwegian surveys.