ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE

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.