Balaenoptera musculus ( Linnaeus, 1758 )

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 : 118

Balaenoptera musculus ( Linnaeus, 1758) —Blue Whale

Balaena musculus Linnaeus, 1758 p.76 ; Type locality- Fifth of Forth , Scotland.

Physalus sibbaldii Gray, 1847 p.92 ; Type locality- Coast of Yorkshire , England.

Sibbalius sulfureus Cope, 1869 p.20 ; Type locality- North Atlantic, US; True, 1884 p.591.

Balaenoptera musculus: Kuroda, 1938 p.11 ; Won, 1958 p.433; Won, 1967 p.79; Won, 1968 p.236; Kim et al., 2000 p.52; Kim, 2004 p.217.

Range: Balaenoptera musculus has rarely been encountered in the East Sea ( Fig. 78 ). Whalers harvested a total of 20 blue whales in the waters of Korea during 1911 to 1944 ( Park 1987). There has been no record of this whale in Korean waters since 1944.

Remarks: The Northern Hemisphere stock (except the Indian Ocean stock) is identified under B. m. musculus ( Reilly et al. 2008) .

Conservation status: The South Korean government designated this species a Protected Marine Species in 2007. The North Korean Red Data Book listed this species as ‘Rare.’ CITES has protected B. musculus as an Appendix I species, and the IUCN designated this whale as ‘Endangered’.

Figures

FIGURE 78. Range map of Balaenoptera musculus in Korea.