PROTECTION STATUS: Endangered
YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 1970
CRITICAL HABITAT: None
RECOVERY PLAN: None
RANGE: Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas in the western Arctic Ocean; Baffin Bay, Davis Strait, and Hudson Bay in the Canadian Arctic; the Okhotsk Sea in Russia; and Spitsbergen westward to Greenland in the far North Atlantic Ocean
THREATS: Oil and gas exploration and development, collisions with ships, industrial pollution, and global warming
POPULATION TREND: Four of the five remaining bowhead whale populations have fewer than 400 whales each. The largest population of bowhead whales is the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort stock, currently estimated at 10,000 individuals and rising.