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There are about 80 different
whale species, ranging from the world's biggest animal, the blue whale to small porpoises.
Each species is divided into populations or stocks. These stocks can be both
geographically and genetically different, but some overlapping can occur. There are about one million minke whales worldwide. The population
in the Antarctic is estimated to 760,000 (Source: IWC), the North West Pacific
and Okhotsk Sea population is estimated to number 25,000 (Source: IWC). In the
North Atlantic east of Greenland, the most recent estimates put the number to a total of
184,000 (112,000 for the North-East (Source: IWC) and 72,000 for the
North-Central Atlantic stock (Source: NAMMCO).
Sperm whales are estimated to number one million
worldwide, while others say it is closer to two million.
The gray whale population in the North East Pacific is
estimated to be 23,000 (Source: IWC)
Various dolphin species are abundant in the North Pacific,
examples of population estimates are: the common dolphin at 3,179,000, the striped dolphin
at 1,485,000, the spotted dolphin at 1,782,000 and the spinner dolphin at 1,582,000 (Source:
Tsutomu Tamura and Seiji Ohsumi, Estimation of total food consumption by cetaceans
in the world’s oceans, Tokyo: ICR, 1999).
Estimates for fin whales and sei whales in North Atlantic
waters, east of Greenland, are 22,800 and 9,250 respectively (Source: NAMMCO).
There are still populations of several whale species that
are not in good shape, e.g. the blue whale in the Antarctic is believed to number only
710. The North Pacific population is about 1,340 and the North Atlantic stock is at about
1,378.
All whaling today is from stocks that are abundant, with
the exception of the bowhead which is still considered endangered. Despite a limited hunt,
mainly by the USA and a few by Canada and Russia, the bowhead population has increased.
Further information:
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