Good news for Bowhead whales in the Arctic.

01/03/2007 00:00:00 July 2006. Scientists have recently sighted several Bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) near Spitzbergen where they have been seen very rarely in the last 50 years. 2 weeks of looking during a research expedition in the Arctic seas between Greenland and the Svalbard Islands ( part of Norway) was rewarded with eight whale sightings, several of which were of multiple whales (two groups of three and a group of seven). These sightings give a ray of hope for the recovery of the Spitsbergen stock of Bowhead whales, a critically endangered population.

Bowhead whales were hugely over-hunted in early commercial whaling in the Arctic in the 17th Century. By the late 1800s, the Spitsbergen stock was on the verge of extinction.

The research study of Bowhead whales is a joint venture between the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo, the Institute for Marine Research in Bergen and the Norwegian Polar Insitute in Tromso.

The Svalbard population is virtually unstudied as sightings areso rare, and estimates at numbers of Bowheads range from just a few individuals to around 100, though most reports suggest less than 20. The reality is that it is guess work. The research team is hopeful that the success of this initial project will provide an incentive to support a more intensive census.

The worldwide moratorium on whaling came into effect in 1986, though bowhead whales have been protected since before then and are still harvested in significant numbers under the guidance of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) by native people particularly in Alaska. They were protected by IWC in the mid 1960s and listed as Endangered in the early 1970s.