Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce the following paper recently published in Aquatic 
Mammals
De Boer, MN, Jones, D., Jones, H. (2017).Ocean Wanderers - Extralimital 
Encounters with Bowhead Whales (Balaena mysticetus) in Temperate European 
Shallow Waters. Aquatic Mammals 43(3), 279-288, DOI 10.1578/AM.43.3.2017.279

Abstract

Reports of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus)outside the Arctic Circle are 
scarce. On 15 May 2016, a juvenile bowhead whale was recorded in shallow water 
in Mount’s Bay (Cornwall, UK) much further south than the species’normal 
dis­tribution. Fifteen months earlier, another such sighting was made involving 
a juvenile bow­head whale in the shallow water of an offshore island, St 
Martin’s (Isles of Scilly, Cornwall), only 60km from Mount’s Bay. Other 
observations of suspected/confirmed immature bowhead whales include (1)an 
unconfirmed sighting involving a whale without a dorsal fin off Cornwall (13May 
2016), (2) a confirmed sighting off France (10May 2016), and (3) a confirmed 
sighting in Carlingford Lough (border of Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland; 
29 May 2016). These extra­limital encounters present the first confirmed 
sightings of bowhead whales within temperate European waters. Apart from the 
whale sighted in 2015, the sightings in 2016 probably all involve the same 
juvenile whale. Indeed, photographs depicting natural scars/marks suggest that 
the Carlingford Lough bowhead whale is the same individual as the Mount’s Bay. 
The whale was displaying behaviour indicative of ram feeding in a sheltered, 
shallow bay (< 10 m water depth). Do these records present vagrant animals from 
nearby endangered Arctic stocks? Whatever triggered these immature bowhead 
whales to venture well outside the Arctic Circle remains unknown, yet these 
observations suggest an unexpected adapt­ability to foraging in temperate 
shallow waters.
The paper can be downloaded from Aquatic 
Mammals:<http://www.aquaticmammalsjournal.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=160&Itemid=326>
Kind Regards,
Marijke de Boer, Ph.D

<marijke.deb...@wur.nl> Wageningen Marine Research, Den Helder, Netherlands
<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marijke_De_Boer/publications>




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