General information
We did not received any new bowhead locations from the middle of February 2013 until April. Tagging crews at St. Lawrence Island from Savoonga prepared to tag bowhead whales in April. Their tags, as well as some of the B12 tags, are tracked in maps below. You can also find these maps on the ADFG archives.
2013 Bowhead Satellite Tagging Season
January 3, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. Bowhead whale B12-3 was moving into the Bering Sea as of 3 January 2013 and has travelled farther east in the Bering Sea than any other tagged whale to date. However, there have been sightings of bowhead whales near the Pribilof Islands (see map) in the 1970s and acoustic recorders have recently detected bowhead whales approximately 200 miles east of the Pribilof Islands in winter. As such, this movement is not totally unexpected. Hopefully, this transmitter will continue to work throughout the winter.
January 14, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. Bowhead whale B12-3 was still located south of Nunivak Island in the eastern Bering Sea as of 14 January 2013. The ice image is blurred by cloud cover, but you can see that the whale is located near the southern ice edge.
January 30, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. Bowhead whale B12-3 has moved from the area south of Nunivak Island to St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea as of 30 January 2013. No transmissions were received between these two locations, so the track is a straight line. The ice image is blurred by cloud cover, but you can see that the whale is located near the southern ice edge.
February 6, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. Bowhead whale B12-3 is still located north of St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea as of 6 February 2013.
April 21, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. Tom Akeya, Carl Pelowook, and their crews from Savoonga, St. Lawrence Island, tagged a bowhead whale on Sunday, 21 April 2013, near Pugughileq. The tag is operating normally and will yield both location and dive data. Congratulations to Tom and his crew! In addition to this, a tag that was deployed last fall in 2012 by Billy Adams near Barrow, Alaska, has come back on the air. The tag (B12-04) was deployed on 21 September 2012 and went off the air in November. Over the last two weeks, the tag has started to transmit again. Both whales are shown on this map. The newly tagged whale (B13-01) is the red track and the whale tagged last fall (B12-04) is the yellow track, both as of 23 April 2013. The MODIS image of sea ice was taken on 21 April 2013.
April 29, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. As of 29 April 2013, B12-04 is still located south of St. Lawrence Island, but appears to be northbound. B13-01 passed east of St. Lawrence Island and has entered the Chukchi Sea east of Little Diomede. This is the first tagged whale that passed east of St. Lawrence Island during the spring migration. The MODIS ice image was taken on 27 April.
May 5, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. Over the last ten days, we have received transmissions from two bowhead whales, and these are the locations ending as of 5 May 2013. The MODIS ice image was taken on 3 May 2013 and is largely free of cloud cover.
May 13, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. Over the last ten days, we have received transmissions from two bowhead whales and these are the locations ending as of 13 May 2013. B13-01 has passed by Point Barrow and is currently eastbound. B12-04 has yet to pass by Barrow, but will likely do so in the next few days. The MODIS ice image was taken on 8 May; it is obscured by cloud cover but is the best image currently available.
May 20, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. We have received transmissions from two bowhead whales in the last ten days, and these are the locations ending as of 20 May 2013. Both whales have passed Barrow; B13-01 is currently north of Cape Bathurst, Canada, and B12-04 is currently north of Kaktovik, Alaska. The MODIS image was taken on 18 May.
May 28, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. Both bowhead whales have reached Amundsen Gulf and are currently located within the open water off Cape Bathurst (i.e., the Cape Bathurst polynya). This map shows the path our two whales have followed over the last ten days, and these are the locations ending as of 28 May 2013. The MODIS ice image was taken on 27 May. Light cloud cover partially obscures much of the image; however, you can still see ice pans and open water through the clouds. Most of Amundsen Gulf is still locked in landfast ice.
July 3, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. This map shows the most recent bowhead location data as of 3 July 2013. One bowhead tag is currently transmitting. The whale tagged at St. Lawrence Island last spring, B13-01, travelled to Amundsen Gulf, but Amundsen Gulf remained locked in land fast ice until just a few days ago. Approximately a week ago, B13-01 began to head west. The whale is currently 125 miles (200 km) north-northeast of Barrow.
July 8, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. This map shows the most recent bowhead location data as of 8 July 2013. The whale is currently 260 miles (420 km) north-northwest of Wrangel Island.
July 29, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. This map shows the most recent bowhead location data as of 29 July 2013. The whale has returned to the Alaskan Beaufort after travelling north-northwest of Wrangel Island. The weather has been cloudy and we cannot see sea ice through the cloud cover in the MODIS images. Because of the cloud cover, the whale’s track is plotted over sea ice concentration data available from the National Ice Center (http://www.natice.noaa.gov/).
August 8, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. This map shows the most recent bowhead location data as of 8 August 2013. Bowhead B13-01 has returned to the Alaskan Beaufort Sea and is currently east of Kaktovik. Clouds in the southern Beaufort Sea have again obstructed MODIS satellite images over the last week. Therefore, we plotted the bowhead tracks over sea ice concentration data available from the National Ice Center (http://www.natice.noaa.gov/ ).
September 2, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. This map shows the most recent bowhead location data as of 2 September 2013. The tagged bowhead whale is approximately 120 miles west of Kaktovik (~70 miles east-northeast of Nuiqsut) and is westbound towards Barrow.
September 8, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. This map shows the most recent bowhead location data as of 8 September 2013. The tagged bowhead is currently located near Barrow, Alaska, and appears to be west bound.
September 16, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. This map shows the most recent bowhead location data as of 16 September 2013. The tagged bowhead whale (B13-01) has remained near Barrow, Alaska, for the last ten days. There is currently no sea ice near Barrow so the whale track is presented with local bathymetry.
September 23, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. This map shows the most recent bowhead location data as of 23 September 2013. The tagged bowhead whale has left Barrow and is currently westbound. The whale is still well south of the ice edge, so the map shows bathymetry rather than sea ice.
October 14, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. This map shows the most recent bowhead location data as of 14 October 2013. The tagged bowhead whale is currently located approximately 70 miles (112 km) northeast of Wrangel Island.
November 4, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. The B13-01 tag is still transmitting; the whale is slowly moving south along the northern coast of Chukotka, Russia.
November 25, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. The B13-01 tagged bowhead whale is still located along the northern coast of Chukotka, Russia, in the Chukchi Sea. The whale is approximately 150 miles (240 km) northwest of the Diomede Islands.
December 3, 2013
Bowhead whale movements. The tagged bowhead whale (B13-01) is approximately 133 miles (215 km) northwest of the Diomede Islands, along the northern coast of Chukotka, Russia. the whale has been moving back and forth in this vicinity for over a month.
The bowhead tag (B13-01) is currently off the air as of mid-December 2013. Crews at St. Lawrence Island are still hoping to tag this winter. More maps will be posted if more tagging occurs or if B13-01 resumes transmitting. Archived maps will show all of the tracked movements for 2013.
