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Science 25 July 2003:
Vol. 301. no. 5632, pp. 508 - 510
DOI: 10.1126/science.1084524
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Reports

Whales Before Whaling in the North Atlantic

Joe Roman and Stephen R. Palumbi*

It is well known that hunting dramatically reduced all baleen whale populations, yet reliable estimates of former whale abundances are elusive. Based on coalescent models for mitochondrial DNA sequence variation, the genetic diversity of North Atlantic whales suggests population sizes of approximately 240,000 humpback, 360,000 fin, and 265,000 minke whales. Estimates for fin and humpback whales are far greater than those previously calculated for prewhaling populations and 6 to 20 times higher than present-day population estimates. Such discrepancies suggest the need for a quantitative reevaluation of historical whale populations and a fundamental revision in our conception of the natural state of the oceans.

Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.



* Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Hopkins Marine Station, Ocean View Boulevard, Pacific Grove, CA 93950, USA.

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