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Theodore Lessman WR121 M-Th 10a 07/25/2013 Untz Essay #2 Bowheads: The Arctic Survivors The bowhead whale, according to the New Bedford Whaling Museum website, has been the target of European whalers since as early as the 15th century. Alaskan and American Natives have hunted bowheads and other whales for sustenance for over a millennia, but soon after the Europeans began hunting for commercial goods, even American Natives began hunting commercially (New Bedford Whaling Museum). The whaling industry was rampant for nearly 300 years, and the eastern bowhead populations were severely reduced. This continued until the late 19th century, after which time the American whaling industry reduced drastically. Even though other countries still participate in whaling (New Bedford Whaling Museum), according to WWF an organization dedicated to reducing the impact humans have on wildlife and their environment the bowhead population is beginning to rebuild itself. What has contributed to saving them from their seemingly unavoidable demise? By relying on the environment around them, the development of technologies that took pressure off of them, and regulations introduced by humans who realized how valuable they were, bowhead whales chances of survival continue to improve. To understand how these whales became endangered, we must also take a closer look at the bowhead population to comprehend their biological features, natural habits, and environmental threats. The bowhead is a mysticete, or baleen whale, which is toothless and relies on its baleen plates to filter plankton from the water (WWF). Baleen whales are also characterized for having a symmetrical skull and paired blowholes (WWF). Its scientific name is

Baleena Mysticetus and is sometimes referred to as the Greenland right whale (WWF). The bowhead is most known for its large skull, which takes up about a third of its total length, with a jaw that turns upward (WWF). The bowheads baleen plates are the longest among all cetaceans, reaching up to nearly 15 feet (WWF). Unlike many other whales, bowheads do not have a dorsal fin (WWF). Its blubber is also one of the thickest out of all whales (New Bedford Whaling Museum). Some of the most distinguishing characteristics of the bowheads were also their most valued pieces (WWF). Baleen plates were often harvested and used in corsets, umbrellas, and toys; blubber could be melted down into an oil to be used in candles and lamps (New Bedford Whaling Museum). This oil was also used to for margarine and other cooking oils, and was also used to make soap (New Bedford Whaling Museum). Ambergris a material found in whales stomachs was used in cosmetics and as a fixative in perfumes (New Bedford Whaling Museum). For a long time, it was assumed that these whales had the same lifespan as other baleen whales, about 70 years; without teeth, it has been difficult to determine the subjects age (WWF). Recently, however, an article titled Bowhead Whales May be the Worlds Oldest Mammals, was published in the Alaska Science Forum. According to the author of this article, science writer Ned Rozell of the Geophysical Institute and University of Alaska in Fairbanks, Craig George, a biologist, discovered a century old harpoon head lodged in the blubber of a freshly killed bowhead subject. George requested the help of a geochemist named Jeffery Bada, whose evidence confirmed Georges findings (Rozell). George knew the relative ages of the sampled whales, but he didn't tell Bada, who nonetheless determined which sample came from an infant, a juvenile, or an adult. Bada found

that most of the adult whales were between 20 and 60 years old when they died, but five males were much older. One was 91, one was 135, one 159, one 172, and the oldest whale was 211 years old at the time of its death. Rozell elaborates on the whales age: That whale, alive during the term of President Clinton, was also gliding slowly and gracefully through the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort seas when Thomas Jefferson was president, (Rozell). Rozell continues by relating the subjects age to that of other mammals: The oldest known ages for mammals are 110 years for a blue whale and 114 years for a fin whale, based on a Japanese scientist's counting of waxy laminates on the inner ear plug of the whales, a method that does not work for bowheads. The oldest living person with a birth certificate was a 122-year-old woman from France who died in 1997. Elephants have lived to 70 in captivity, so bowheads may be the oldest mammals that exist, (Rozell). Currently, there are around ten-thousand bowhead whales globally. They live in the open waters of the Arctic, North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans, as well as various bays and harbors that border the surrounding land (WWF). According to the WWF, Less than 100 probably remain in the Svalbard-Barents Sea, a population classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN, and 150-200 in the Okhotsk Sea. Long-term monitoring efforts of the BeringChukchi-Beaufort population indicate that the population has been increasing in the 1980s and early 1990s, despite ongoing hunting. The extreme nature of the arctic waters has been a large contributor to the survival of the bowhead species. Unlike other great whales, the bowhead spends its entire life in the arctic, as it is in fact designed for arctic waters (WWF). Rozell states in his article, George speculated that the bowhead's tough environment-cold water without abundant food available-forces it to maintain a great body mass, an effective system for fat storage and an efficient mechanism to

keep warm. In addition, the bowheads enormous skull allows it to break through solid ice, up to almost 2 feet thick (WWF). This may have allowed the whales to remain hidden from fragile human whaling ships when they were being hunted. When the bowhead needed air, it could break through ice, then submerge again into the waters below. Whalers who dared to venture into the arctic often encountered illness due to overexposure, and would often be required to spend an entire winter holed up in the north due to extreme weather (New Bedford Whaling Museum). Collisions with ice chunks would result in loss of cargo, loss of ships, and the most devastating, loss of their lives (New Bedford Whaling Museum). Whalers attempted to adapt their ships to the environment, but often these improvements did not add enough strength to the hull, or make the ship any more maneuverable to help against the jagged ice fragments (New Bedford Whaling Museum). Eventually, the commercial whaling era came to a close, and many companies decided it was not worth the risk, turning instead to more profitable investments (New Bedford Whaling Museum). Inventions such as plastic, preservatives and synthetic oils, provided alternatives to whale products that were cheaper and less dangerous to produce (New Bedford Whaling Museum). Petroleum served as a replacement for burning oils and fuels (New Bedford Whaling Museum). Since the mid 1900s, the world has become more aware of the dire state of whale populations. Many nations have placed restrictions on whale hunting, as well as the buying and selling of whale products (WWF). As such, the populations near Greenland, though small, still exist. In North America, only Alaskan Natives are allowed to hunt, and only on special sustenance hunts, which are limited and can only target stable populations (WWF).

Since the 1980s WWF has made strides to provide sanctuaries and safe feeding zones for bowhead whales one such feeding zone is around Clyde River in NE Baffin Island, Canada. There they work with the community to protect and document the whale population (WWF). In 2009, the first sanctuary in Isabella Bay near Clyde River was completed (WWF). According to a news report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the bay was once a place where outsiders were banned due to over hunting when whaling. The natives have agreed to allow the sanctuary be a source of tourism, to generate money and provide a hunt free area for the population (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). Humans are beginning to see that their actions have consequences. Some of them such as the use of plastics and synthetic materials have both positive and negative effects on our environment (New Bedford Whaling Museum). Some modern threats to all species of whales are the toxins that accumulate in the arctic, as well as the loss of environment due to human activities such as offshore oil rigging, shipping and recreational boating, and the creation of offshore landfills (WWF). All whales play an important role in our ecosystem and the quality of human life. According to an article written by Josh Harkinson in Mother Jones magazine, whales are an integral point in the food chain of the oceans. Whale feces provide food for many smaller marine creatures such as iron for phytoplankton which in turn balances out the carbon levels in the air we breathe (Harkinson). Bowhead whales survived a tremendous assault by relying on their environment. In addition, technology breakthroughs and the hard work of activists and politicians played a large role in their continued existence. More than anything, they were lucky: had the timely development of plastics not come about, had politicians turned their heads for one more century,

had their home been any more forgiving of outsiders an entirely different story would have been told. While North America has made progress in preserving the bowhead population, many countries continue to hunt these creatures. Bowheads are in no way clear of the threat of elimination; by continuing to work on creating safe place and protective laws for them, we can help increase their chance of survival, while bettering the worlds ecology.

Bibliography
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. CBC Feature: Bowhead Whale Sactuary in Nunavut. Toronto, 7 October 2009. Video. Harkinson, Josh. "Can Whale Poop Stop Climate Change?" 16 June 2010. Mother Jones. Article. 24 July 2013. New Bedford Whaling Museum. "American Whaling." 3 November 2011. New Bedford Whaling Museum. Website. 9 July 2013. Rozell, Ned. "Bowhead Whales May Be the World's Oldest Mammals Article # 1529." Alaska Science Forum (2001): 1-2. Science Journal. WWF. "Bowhead Whale." 2013. WWF. Website. 9 July 2013.