Extinct Animal : Bowhead Whale

This slow-moving whale, which grows up to 20 m in length, inhabits the Arctic Ocean and the sub-arctic waters of the north Atlantic and Pacific.

Whaling for this species began near Spitsbergen as early as 1611 and continued until the early 1900s when the animal’s numbers became too low to be economically viable and the demand for whalebone ended.

The bowhead has been protected by the International Whaling Commission since 1937. However, Native peoples are still allowed to hunt these whales for food.

The bowhead seems to be recovering well in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas, but its recovery has been slower in the Baffin Island, Greenland and Spitsbergen regions where whaling was more intensive and carried on over a longer period. There are approximately 8,000 bowhead whales in existence today.