Balaenoptera borealis Lesson, 1828

Jo, Yeong-Seok, Baccus, John T. & Koprowski, John L., 2018, Mammals of Korea: a review of their taxonomy, distribution and conservation status, Zootaxa 4522 (1), pp. 1-216 : 117-118

Balaenoptera borealis Lesson, 1828 —Sei Whale

Balaenoptera borealis Lesson, 1828 p.342 ; Type locality- Germany; Kuroda, 1938 p.10; Ellerman & Morrison-Scott, 1951 p.715; Kim et al., 2000 p.56; Kim, 2004 p.220.

Range: Despite the species being a cosmopolitan species with wide distribution, only few observations of B. borealis have recorded in the waters of Korea ( Fig. 76 ). Since 1911, fishermen caught only seven Sei whales (three in 1968) in the waters near Korea ( Park 1987).

Remarks: Although marine biologists placed the Northern Hemisphere stock in the subspecies B. b. borealis , this stock might represent two or three different lineages (eastern and western or eastern, central and western stocks; Reeves & Kenney 2003).

Conservation status: The South Korean government made the Sei whale a Protected Marine Species in 2007. This species also occurs on CITES Appendix I and in the IUCN Red List as ‘Endangered’. Based on our information, North Korea is not involved in the conservation of this whale.

Figures

FIGURE 76. Range map of Balaenoptera borealis in Korea.