Distribution and catch of white whales (Delphinapterus leucas) at Svalbard

Abstract

The distribution and catch of white whales at Svalbard are discussed based on literature, interviews with local residents, trappers and pilots, opportunistic observations recorded in the Norwegian Polar Institute fauna-data-base, and personal observations by the authors. The total number of white whales killed in Svalbard from the 18th century to the early 1960s was considerably higher than 15 000 animals. Today white whales are protected in Norwegian waters. Most white whales seem to appear at Svalbard in the spring and to leave again when the western fjords freeze in the autumn. However it is not known whether they come from and return to the eastern Greenland Sea or the Barents Sea. The number of white whales using the Svalbard area is not known, but since they have been protected for the last 30 years the population is assumed to be secure.