Bowhead whales, and not right whales, were the primary target of 16th- to 17th-century Basque Whalers in the Western North Atlantic

Abstract

ABSTRACT. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Basque whalers travelled annually to the Strait of Belle Isle and Gulf of St. Lawrence to hunt whales. The hunting that occurred during this period is of primary significance for the North Atlantic right whale, Eubalaena glacialis (Müller, 1776), because it has been interpreted as the largest human-induced reduction of the western North Atlantic population, with ~12 250 -21 000 whales killed. It has been frequently reported that the Basques targeted two species in this region: the North Atlantic right whale and the bowhead whale, Balaena mysticetus L., 1758. To evaluate this hypothesis and the relative impact of this period of whaling on both species, we collected samples from 364 whale bones during a comprehensive search of Basque whaling ports from the 16th to the 17th century in the Strait of Belle Isle and Gulf of St. Lawrence. Bones were found and sampled at 10 of the 20 sites investigated. DNA was extracted from a subset (n = 218) of these samples. Analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome b region identified five whale species. The identification of only a single right whale bone and 203 bowhead whale bones from at least 72 individuals indicates that the bowhead whale was likely the principal target of the hunt. These results imply that this whaling had a much greater impact (in terms of numbers of whales removed) on the bowhead whale population than on the western North Atlantic right whale population.Key words: Balaena mysticetus, Eubalaena glacialis, whaling, Basque, Little Ice Age, historical population size, DNA, bone, cytochrome b RÉSUMÉ. Aux XVI e et XVII e siècles, les baleiniers basques se rendaient tous les ans au détroit de Belle Isle et au golfe du SaintLaurent pour faire la chasse aux baleines. La chasse qui s'est effectuée pendant cette période revêt une grande importance pour la baleine franche ou baleine noire de l'Atlantique Nord, Eubalaena glacialis (Müller, 1776), car cette activité serait interprétée comme la plus grande réduction de la population de baleines franches de l'Atlantique Nord causée par l'être humain, au rythme d'environ 12 250 à 21 000 baleines tuées. On a souvent signalé que les Basques visaient deux espèces dans cette région, soit la baleine franche de l'Atlantique Nord et la baleine boréale, Balaena mysticetus L., 1758. Pour évaluer cette hypothèse et l'incidence relative de cette période de pêche aux baleines sur ces deux espèces, nous avons recueilli des échantillons provenant de 364 ossements de baleines dans le cadre d'une recherche approfondie de ports basques de chasse à la baleine remontant aux XVI e et XVII e siècles dans le détroit de Belle Isle et le golfe du Saint-Laurent. Des ossements ont été trouvés et échantillonnés à 10 des 20 sites ayant fait l'objet de notre recherche. De l'ADN a été extrait d'un sous-ensemble (n = 218) de ces échantillons. L'analyse mitochondriale cytochrome b de la région a permis d'identifier cinq espèces de baleines. L'identification d'un seul os de baleine franche et de 203 os de balei...

DNA profile of a sixteenth century western North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis)

“…Reeves et al 1999Reeves et al , 2007, recent data suggest that the observed low genetic variation in the present population may pre-date whaling activities (Waldick et al 2002;Rastogi et al 2004;McLeod et al 2008). Genetic assessment of the contemporary right whale population using nuclear microsatellite markers concluded that a genetic bottleneck has not occurred in the last 200 years (coinciding with the peak of American whaling) and that 800 years of erosion of alleles due to harvesting may be responsible for the low variability in this species (Waldick et al 2002).…”

“…Because the historic bone specimen possessed a mitochondrial control region haplotype different from those found in the extant population (haplotype 'F'; AY821863; Rastogi et al 2004), the purity of each DNA extraction (n = 8) was assessed by amplifying and sequencing 218 bp of this fragment using primers UP098 and LP282 (Rastogi et al 2004). PCR conditions followed that of McLeod et al (2008) and included 5 ll DNA extract. PCR product was purified and sequenced as per McLeod et al (2008) and then compared to the six known E. glacialis haplotypes Rastogi et al 2004) (Genbank Accession numbers AF395039-AF395043, AY821863).…”

“…Genetic assessment of the contemporary right whale population using nuclear microsatellite markers concluded that a genetic bottleneck has not occurred in the last 200 years (coinciding with the peak of American whaling) and that 800 years of erosion of alleles due to harvesting may be responsible for the low variability in this species (Waldick et al 2002). In addition, recent genetic analysis of 218 whale bones found throughout the range of known sixteenth to seventeenth century Basque sites in the western North Atlantic identified only a single North Atlantic right whale specimen (McLeod et al 2008), while the remaining specimens were from bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus). These data are not consistent with the suggestion that Basque whaling activities were responsible for what was previously thought to be the largest reduction of the right whale population.…”

Ancient DNA reveals that bowhead whale lineages survived Late Pleistocene climate change and habitat shifts

“…Subfossil baleen whale samples were sampled following the protocol outlined in McLeod et al 20 , from collections held at the Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen; Natural History Museum, Rotterdam; Gothenburg Museum of Natural History; Gothenburg Stadsmuseum; Vendsyssel Historical Museum; Museumcenter, Hanstholm; and Natural History Museum of Aarhus. Previous genetic studies have shown that bowhead whale B. mysticetus and right whale E. glacialis skeletal remains cannot always be reliably distinguished based on morphology 24 . Given that many of our samples were from vertebrae, from which curators suggested they could not conclusively distinguish among taxa, species identification was molecularly determined using aDNA protocols.…”

“…Specifically, we use aDNA to verify the species identification of subfossils catalogued as bowhead whales based on morphology, but which could be right whales given their southerly distribution and the difficulty in distinguishing between the two taxa based on some morphological traits 24 . We model the distribution of the preferred habitat of the bowhead whale during the Late Pleistocene using paleoclimate data from the Last Glacial Maximum to investigate if the distribution of bowhead whale subfossils matched the predicted range.…”