Whales and Men: genetic inferences uncover a detailed history of hunting in bowhead whale

Abstract

10 After millennia of hunting and a population collapse, it is still challenging to understand the genetic 11 consequences of whaling on the circumarctic bowhead whale. Here I use published modern mtDNA 12 sequences from the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort population and a new time calibration to show that late– 13 glacial climate changes and whaling have been the major drivers of population change. Cultures that 14 hunted in the Arctic Seas from as early as 5000 years ago appear to be responsible for successive 15 declines of the population growth, bringing the effective size down to 38% of its pristine population 16 size. The Thules and the Basques (year 1000–1730) who only hunted in the North Atlantic had a major 17 impact on this North Pacific population, indicating that bowhead whale stocks respond to harvesting as 18 a single population unit. Recent positive growth is inferred only after the end of commercial whaling in 19 1915, and for levels of harvesting that are close to the current annual quota of 67 whales. By unfolding 20 the population history of the bowhead whale, I provide compelling evidence that mtDNA yields critical 21 yet undervalued information for management and conservation of natural populations. 22 23 Key words: Abundance; Balaena mysticetus; Extended Bayesian Skyline plot; Last Glacial Maximum; 24 Population dynamics; Whaling bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.09.033191; this version posted April 10, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. 25