The Future of Bowhead Whales Depends on Us

Bowhead whales are remarkable for their immense size, reaching up to 60 feet in length and weighing as much as 100 tons, and their extraordinary lifespan of up to 200 years or more. There truly is no other whale like the bowhead. Bowheads spend their lives in the Arctic. Consequently, they rely on the ice in the region for their survival. Unfortunately, beginning in the 1980s, the Arctic ice began to melt substantially to the point where now, the bowhead whales’ habitat is predicted to shrink by up to 75% by 2100. This is not normal for the Arctic ice to decrease so substantially, and here is why.

Why the Bowhead Whale’s Habitat May Shrink By Up to 75%

The bowhead whale lives exclusively in the Arctic. The whale has some of the thickest blubber of any species of whale, allowing them to regulate their body temperature even in ocean water that is near the freezing point of the ocean at the surface. Over the past several decades, climate change has had a profound impact on the Arctic. Specifically, temperatures have become so warm that the ice that covers the oceans has begun to shrink. By the time the summer rolls around, the ice has melted to the point where animals, like the bowhead whale that need it to survive, have been put in jeopardy.

According to a new study published in Ecology and Evolution, scientists have determined that without any intervention, the habitat on which bowhead whales rely will shrink by 75% by 2100. What this will do to the population of bowhead whales remains to be seen. Bowhead whales use the ice in several ways: as a navigation tool for migrating between winter and summer areas, as protection from killer whales, and as a source of abundant plankton when the ice melts. The Arctic ice sheets are critical to their survival.

According to lead study author Nicholas Freymueller, a professor at the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute and the University of Copenhagen’s Globe Institute, bowhead whales have gathered in the same region for generations.

“Bowhead whales have preferred to forage amongst sea ice for many millennia,” Freymueller explains. “However, Arctic sea ice has declined significantly in recent decades, and this is set to accelerate in the coming decades, causing habitats where bowhead whales currently congregate in large numbers to be lost.”

The sea ice expected to remain after 2100 and could sustain bowhead whales, is located outside their historic habitat. This was determined by scientists during the study by looking at the areas where the bowhead whales congregated before they were nearly hunted to extinction. Those areas, even when the Arctic ice was plentiful, never included the region where future sustainable sea ice is forecasted to be.

“By using ecological models and paleo-archives to reconstruct pre-whaling distributions of bowhead whales, we were able to develop a much stronger understanding of the habitat preferences of this species that was nearly hunted to extinction,” Associate Professor Damien Fordham of the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute and senior author on the study states.

This is a real shame, given that after a century of being overhunted, the bowhead whale population is only starting to recover. If their natural habitat is destroyed by 2100 or earlier, the conservation efforts put forth to save the whales may be all for not.

Bowhead Whales Are Now Only Beginning to Recover

Bowhead whales once had a population of approximately 50,000 whales. However, due to commercial fishing during the 1800s, the population decreased to just about 3,000 individuals. It was not until the League of Nations Convention in 1931 that bowhead whales became protected from being hunted. However, it would not be until 1966 that the whales were protected by the Endangered Species Preservation Act, and later in 1973, as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act, that the population began to slowly rebound.

Today, there are an estimated 10,000 bowhead whales. While they are considered a “species of least concern” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), there are some subpopulations of bowhead whales that are only 400 strong. While the bowhead whales have begun their journey toward repopulation, the possibility of ever reaching historic levels is looking rather slim.

Biggest Threats to Bowhead Whales

Bowhead whales have had to overcome quite a bit to not only recover from when they were nearly hunted to extinction but to adapt to a home that has ever-decreasing sea ice that threatens their very survival. If that were not enough to threaten the lives of bowhead whales, there are other factors that the species has to contend with in order to survive. Some of the biggest threats, outside of Arctic ice loss, that bowhead whales face include:

• Ship strikes
• Oil and gas exploration
• Entanglement in fishing gear
• Predation
• Pollution

The ship strikes have become a larger problem as the Arctic ice has melted. Melting ice has enabled more ships to pass through the Bering Strait for extended periods. While this is celebrated from a profitability standpoint, the 55% increase in vessel traffic raises significant concerns for bowhead whales due to increased risk of ship strikes and disturbance. Therefore, something must be done to save the bowhead whales’ habitat from disappearing.

What Can Be Done to Save the Bowhead Whale’s Habitat

Saving the Arctic ice has been talked about for decades. As carbon emissions continue to melt the Arctic ice at an accelerated rate due to rising summer temperatures, current projections show that without significant change, the Arctic could experience its first ice-free summer as early as the 2040s or 2050s. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than three times the global rate. As this occurs, the permafrost that has covered the region for at least 10,000 years is also melting. Permafrost disappearing exacerbates the carbon emissions problem, as the melting permafrost releases greenhouse gases. Consequently, by 2100, it is estimated that “30 to more than 150 billion tons of carbon” will be released into the environment as the permafrost melts.

This paints an incredibly dire picture for the bowhead whale’s environment. It did appear for a time that the 2015 Paris Agreement would help not only the bowhead whale and other animals in the Arctic. Countries came together and signed the agreement to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. The goal was to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 °C – 2 °C (33.8°F to 35.6°F) above pre-industrial levels by 2100. Unfortunately, most countries missed their 2025 goals, lessening the likelihood that this goal will be met.

What does this mean for bowhead whales? It means that scientists are trying geoengineering to help save the Arctic before it completely thaws. The current school of thought is that if the sea ice can be thickened during the winter, it will last longer during the summer. The concept is still in the trial phase. Small areas of ice have been thickened in places like Cambridge Bay in the Canadian Arctic. The true test of success will be whether the ice persists through the summer.

For those who want to help prevent the Arctic ice from melting, there are three major actions that can be taken:

• Pay more attention to how quickly Arctic ice is melting, and spread the word that lessening carbon emissions is the only way to save the ice
• Start on a local level by demanding that towns and cities do their part to cut carbon emission, and do the same on an individual level
• Write to representatives, informing them of the importance of cutting carbon emissions not only for the betterment of the US but for places like the Arctic as well

Cutting carbon emissions to save the Arctic ice is a monumental task. But creatures like the bowhead whale and other animals that depend on the ice for survival are counting on people to care and make a difference. After all, it is humans who caused this problem. Therefore, it is up to us to fix it before the damage to the Earth and the creatures who live on it is irreparable.