{"product_id":"2940148903574","title":"NORTH PACIFIC RIGHT WHALES IN THE SOUTHEASTERN BERING SEA","description":"The North Pacific right whale (NPRW) was heavily hunted between the 17\u003cbr\u003eth\u003cbr\u003eand the 20\u003cbr\u003eth\u003cbr\u003ecenturies, when it ceased to be the principal target of commercial whaling (Omura, 1986; Scarff, \u003cbr\u003e1986,  2001;  IWC, 2001; Clapham et al.,  2004).  Protection was supposedly afforded by \u003cbr\u003einternational treaties in the 1930s and 1940s, but the illegal harvest of hundreds of individuals by \u003cbr\u003ethe Soviet Union, primarily in the 1960s (e.g. Doroshenko, 2000; Ivashchenko et al., 2011, \u003cbr\u003eIvashchenko and Clapham, 2012) drastically impacted the recovery of the species. \u003cbr\u003eAfter some debate and a failed attempt by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) \u003cbr\u003eto list the NPRW as a unique species, genetic work by Rosenbaum et al (2000) and Gaines et al\u003cbr\u003e(2005) demonstrated that the NPRW (Eubalaena japonica) is a separate species from the North \u003cbr\u003eAtlantic (Eubalaena glacialis) and southern (Eubalaena australis) right whales. The official \u003cbr\u003especies designation by NMFS was implemented in March 2008 (73 FR 12024, 06 March 2008). \u003cbr\u003eOne month later, in accordance with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) mandates, NMFS \u003cbr\u003edesignated a NPRW Critical Habitat (73 FR 19000, 08 April 2008) in the southeastern Bering \u003cbr\u003eSea (SEBS; Figure 1), and one just south of Kodiak Island, Alaska. The location of these habitat \u003cbr\u003edesignations was based on NPRW sighting densities after 1996 (73 FR 19000, 08 April 2008). \u003cbr\u003eAny activity that may affect the critical habitat (including, but not limited to, oil and gas \u003cbr\u003eexploration or drilling, fishing, mining, pollutant discharge, and military training) must complete \u003cbr\u003ean ESA Section 7 consultation through NMFS. \u003cbr\u003eThe existence of two discrete stocks of NPRWs has been proposed: a western population \u003cbr\u003ethat is found in the Okhotsk Sea and in the north-western North Pacific Ocean, and an eastern \u003cbr\u003epopulation that spends the summer in the SEBS and the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) (Clapham et al.,\u003cbr\u003e2004; Shelden  et al.,  2005). The eastern stock was heavily exploited by pelagic whalers \u003cbr\u003ebeginning in 1835, and the population was seriously depleted by 1900 (Brownell et al., 2001; \u003cbr\u003eScarff, 2001). Sighting data from the mid-20th century suggested that a slow recovery was \u003cbr\u003eoccurring (Brownell et al., 2001). However, the illegal killing of 529 whales by Soviet whaling \u003cbr\u003efleets in the Bering Sea and the GOA in the 1960s drove this population to near-extinction and \u003cbr\u003emay have compromised its long-term chances of recovery (Brownell et al., 2001; Ivashchenko \u003cbr\u003eand Clapham, 2012). \u003cbr\u003eToday, the eastern population of the NPRW is the most endangered stock of large whales \u003cbr\u003ein the world (Clapham, 1999). Recent abundance estimates based on photo-identification and \u003cbr\u003egenetic mark-recapture data collected during this and other projects suggest that nearly 30 \u003cbr\u003eindividuals inhabit the southeastern Bering Sea at present, only a third of which are are females \u003cbr\u003e(Wade et al., 2011).\u003cbr\u003eHistorical data suggest that NPRWs had an extensive offshore distribution in their \u003cbr\u003efeeding grounds in the BS and GOA (Townsend, 1935; Scarff, 1986; 2001; Clapham et al., 2004; \u003cbr\u003eShelden et al., 2005; Ivashchenko and Clapham, 2012). Currently, the few remaining whales in \u003cbr\u003ethe eastern stock are only a remnant of the former population, and may not fully occupy the same \u003cbr\u003erange they did two centuries ago (Clapham et al., 2004). In fact, modern sightings and acoustic \u003cbr\u003edetections of NPRWs have been reported in the  SEBS (Goddard and Rugh 1998; LeDuc et al.,\u003cbr\u003e2001; Tynan et al., 2001; Wade et al., 2006) and, more rarely, in the northwestern GOA (Waite \u003cbr\u003eet al., 2003; Mellinger et al., 2004","brand":"ReadCycle","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47165722755312,"sku":"2940148903574","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940148903574_p0.jpg?v=1763710377","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940148903574","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}