A review of Southern Hemisphere humpback whaling by period and catch location

Abstract

Comprehensive Assessments of the seven Southern Hemisphere humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) breeding stocks require an understanding of their respective catch histories. A lack of information on humpback whale catches from American, British and French open‐boat (or pre‐modern) pelagic and land‐based whaling from 1760 to the late 1920s from some fleets precludes detailed estimations of catch histories from this era. We therefore provide a review of the whaling of the species across the Southern Hemisphere by modern whaling period, during which some 215,928 humpback whales are estimated to have been taken between 1903 and 1973, comprising land‐based, moored floating factory, and both regulated and unregulated illegal pelagic whaling. Between 1904 and 1914, humpback whales were the main catch at South Georgia and the South Shetland Islands, while, at further Southern Ocean land stations, catch efforts were carried out from the South Orkney, the South Sandwich and Kerguelen Archipelagos, with more limited success. Off the coasts of South America, humpback whales were taken off the west coast and from the Brazilian coast between 1905 and 1963. Southern African catch records show extensive humpback catches from whaling stations across the coast from Madagascar to Gabon from 1908 to 1963, as do catch records from Australia and New Zealand across the same period. A rapid growth in pelagic whaling across the Southern Ocean from 1923 onwards resulted in extensive humpback catches until 1963, despite significant temporal and spatial restrictions. Although humpback whales were totally protected across the Southern Hemisphere by the International Whaling Commission from October 1963, the Soviet Union fleets violated catch and reporting regulations from 1947 to 1973, resulting in significant illegal catches. Additional unregulated catches were made by the Olympic Challenger fleet between 1950 and 1955 in the Antarctic and off the west coast of South America. The information compiled in this review is critical to the evaluation of the whaling impact on each breeding stock, and for future status assessments of the species, and can provide evidence of the historical distributions of the species in breeding and feeding grounds.