Recommendations for bowhead whale research in 1984 : results of the Third Interorganization Planning Meeting

Eighteen participants representing government, industry, and the Alaska Eskimo community attended the third interorganization bowhead whale research planning and technical coordination meeting on 13-14 December 1983 in Seattle, Washington. Recommendations from this meeting were very similar to the two previous meetings. The participants agreed that the highest priority, short-term research (1984 and 1985) should be to 1) continue the study of recruitment by means of photographic measurements of body lengths of individual whales and increase the effort to identify individual whales from low altitude photography; 2) complete and publish the evaluation of sources of bias in the ice-camp census and determine precision of the counts made near Barrow, Alaska, since 1978; 3) continue the census at Barrow with the aid of ice-based observers, acoustic monitoring and across-the-1ead aerial surveys; 4) identify and evaluate possible feeding areas in the Beaufort Sea in summer and autumn, especially near Barter Island and Demarcation Bay; 5) determine the effects of seismic activities on the behavior of whales; and 6) develop a report which reviews current knowledge on bowhead whales using, principally, published and unpublished reports of organizations which have funded research over the past decade. 1984 NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) NWFSC (Northwest Fisheries Science Center) AFSC (Alaska Fisheries Science Center) Library Public Domain 1864