SC/65b/SP04

Cruise report of the second phase of the Japanese Whale
Research Program under Special Permit in the western
North Pacific (JARPN II) in 2013 (Part III) – Coastal
component off Kushiro
TOSHIYA KISHIRO1, HIDEYOSHI YOSHIDA1, NOBUYUKI ITO3, GEN NAKAMURA2, NAOKO MIYAKAWA2, NOZOMITAMAI2, ICHIRO KADOWAKI2, AIKO FUKUMOTO2, MEGUMI TAKAHASHI2, YUSUKE FURUYAMA2, YOSHIHIROOOTA2,HIKARI MAEDA1, TOMIO MIYASHITA1, SAEKO KUMAGAI3,TAKAHIRO HARA3, YUKA KIMURA3, NAGISASAKAMOTO3, NOZOMI KOBAYASHI2, NOBUYUKI SUZUKI2, YU KANAJI1, TOSHIHIRO MOGOE4 , KAZUYOSHINAKAI4, AND HIDEHIRO KATO2
1

National Research Institute of Far Seas Fisheries, 2-12-4 Fukuura, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 236-8648, JapanTokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, 4-5-7 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0075, Japan
3
Association for Community-Based Whaling, Hakata-Eki-Higashi, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka 812-0013, Japan
4
The Institute of Cetacean Research, 4-5 Toyomi-cho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 104-0055, Japan
2

ABSTRACTThe JARPN II coastal component off Kushiro, northeast Japan (the sub-area 7CN) was conducted from 6 September to 25
October 2013, using four small-type whaling catcher boats as sampling vessels. The sampling was conducted in the coastal waters
within the 50 nautical miles from the Kushiro port, and all whales sampled were landed on the land station in the Kushiro port forbiological examination. During the survey, a total of 4,629.7 n. miles (451.8 hours) was searched, 126 schools/ 142 individuals ofcommon minke whales were sighted and 58 whales were sampled. Average body length of sampled whales was 6.77m (SD=0.88,n=41) for males and 6.55m (SD=1.39, n=17) for females, respectively. 27 of the 41 males (65.9%) and seven of the 17 females(41.2%) were sexually mature. The dominant prey species found in the stomach was Japanese sardine Sardinops melanostictus(63.8%), followed by walleye pollock Theragra chalcogramma (22.4%), mackerel Scomber japonicas (6.9%), krill Euphausia
pacifica (5.2%) and Japanese common squid Todarodes pacificus (1.7%). In the 2013 survey, Japanese anchovy Engraulisjaponicus and Pacific saury Cololabis saira could not be found in the stomach. From late 1960’s to 1987, Japanese sardine andmackerel were recorded as the major prey species of common minke whales taken by the commercial whaling. But, when the
coastal component off Kushiro started in 2002, Japanese anchovy was the major prey species found in the stomach, anddominance of the Japanese anchovy was continued until 2011 survey. In 2012, Japanese sardine and mackerels were detectedagain form the stomach by the survey, and in the present survey, Japanese sardine became the most dominant prey species.
Conversely, Japanese anchovy was disappeared. Apparent change in the dominant prey species from Japanese anchovy toJapanese sardine observed here suggested that the distribution and amount of those prey species in the coastal waters off Kushiro
were changed, and the stomach contents of the whales could reflect those environmental changes. Such information is valuable inconsidering the habit of the whales and environmental change in the region, and will be contributed to the objectives of the
JARPN II feeding ecology and ecosystem studies.

BACKGROUND
The objectives of the second phase of the Japanese Whale Research Program under Special Permit in the western
North Pacific (JARPN II) are: i) feeding ecology and ecosystem studies, involving prey consumption bycetaceans, prey preferences of cetaceans and ecosystem modelling, ii) monitoring environmental pollutants incetaceans and marine ecosystem, and iii) stock structure of whales (Government of Japan, 2002).
The JARPN II involves two survey components; ‘offshore’ which is covered by the Nisshin Maru
research vessels and ‘coastal’ which is covered by small-type whaling catcher boats, and the latter one isnecessary to cover the temporal and spatial gaps, which cannot be covered by the Nisshin maru research vessels(Government of Japan, 2002).
After the two-year feasibility surveys of the coastal component conducted in 2002 off Kushiro and 2003
off Sanriku district (Kishiro, et al., 2003, Yoshida, et al., 2004, Government of Japan, 2004a), the coastal
component has been conducted twice a year, with 60 common minke whales being sampled in each of spring off
Sanriku and autumn off Kushiro (Government of Japan, 2004b). In January 2009, the expert workshop was
carried out in Japan under the IWC/SC, and reviewed the results of the first six years of the full-scale JARPN II(IWC, 2009). Based on the results of the workshop, the coastal components were continued following theoriginal research plan (Government of Japan 2004b), and the survey off Kushiro was conducted annually from2004 to 2012 (Kishiro, et al., 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, Yoshida, et al., 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013).
This paper presents results of the 2013 survey off Kushiro, conducted from 6 September to 25 Octoberin 2013. The survey was authorized by the Government of Japan in compliance with Article VIII of theinternational convention for the Regulation of Whaling. The National Research Institute of Far Seas Fisheries

(NRIFSF), Fisheries Research Agency, planned and conducted the survey cooperate with the Institute of
Cetacean Research (ICR), Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, and the Association forCommunity-Based Whaling.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Research area
The research area was same to the previous surveys (Kishiro, et al., 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012,
Yoshida, et al., 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, Yasunaga et al., 2012), i.e. the coastal waters off Kushiro, within the 50
nautical miles from the Kushiro port (Fig. 1). This area is included in the middle part of the sub-area 7CN,
established by the IWC.

Research vessels, land station, and research period
Four small-type whaling catcher boats were used as sampling vessels: Taisho Maru No. 28 (47.3GT), Koei Maru
No.8 (32.0GT), Sumitomo Maru No.51 (30.0GT), and Katsu Maru No.7 (32.0GT). All the whales collected werelanded on the land station (the JARPN II research station) in the Kushiro port for biological examination.
Research period was set for 50 days, from 6 September to 25 October, 2013.

Searching and sampling methods
Searching and sampling methods were almost same with those for the first coastal survey off Kushiro in 2002
(Kishiro et al. 2003). The research head office was placed in the research station and controlled the sampling
vessels during the survey. All catcher boats were engaged as the sampling vessels. To avoid the concentration ofsampling location, the research head office arbitrarily determined the searching area and route (direction fromthe port) for each sampling vessel in every day, based on the information of the whale distribution. Weather
conditions and information on fishing grounds of prey species were also considered. In each vessel, a researcher
was on board and recorded the cruise tracks, searching time on effort, sea weather conditions and sighting data.
Sighting data would be collected for all baleen whales and sperm whales. The vessel principally continued to
cruise and search along the predetermined direction until arrived at 15-30 n. miles from the port, and then freely
cruised in the waters within the 50 n. miles radius from the port. Searching was carried out during the day andthe vessels returned to the port every night. Sighting was conducted from the top barrel and upper bridge by all
the crews and researcher with vessel speed at about 11 knots. All common minke whales sighted were targeted
for sampling, except for the cow-calf pair. When a sighting consisted of more than one animal, first targetedanimal was selected following the random sampling digits. Sampling was made by 50 mm whaling cannon.
Once a vessel caught a whale, it returned to the Kushiro port to transport the animal to the research station.
While returning to the port, other common minke whales sighted were also targeted for sampling, if the situation
allowed. At the port, the sampled whale was lift up from the vessel using wire nets and a crane and transported tothe station by an 11 tons freight trailer. At that time, body weight of the whale was measured with the truck scale.

Biological research on common minke whales collected
All the whales sampled were biologically examined by researchers at the research station. Research items of thebiological studies are summarized in Table 2, with the number of data and samples obtained. These items wererelated to studies on feeding ecology, stock structure, life historical biology and pollutions.

RESULTS
Searching effort made by sampling vessels
The cruise tracks made by the sampling vessels during the survey are shown in Figure 2. The searching areas
covered widely coastal waters within 30 nautical miles from the Kushiro port. Searching distance and time areshown in Table 1. Here, we defined the searching distance and time as that with sighting effort, i.e. the periods ofthe searching conducted from the top barrel. During the research period, total searching distance and time were
4,629.7 n. miles and 451.8 hours, respectively.

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Sightings and sampling of common minke whales
Figure 3 shows distribution of common minke whales sighted by the sampling vessels. Sighting positions
distributed in inshore areas off Kushiro port to the waters in around 30 n. miles from the port, and relatively
concentrated on the slope of the continental shelf regions in the south eastern side of the research area. During
the survey, a total of 126 schools/ 142 individuals of common minke whales were sighted, consisting of 104
schools/ 115 individuals of primary sightings and 22 schools/ 27 individuals of secondary sightings (Table 1).
These figures probably include some duplicated sightings because sampling vessels searched almost same areasin every day. Density index of common minke whales was calculated as 2.48 for DI (the number of primarysightings per 100 nautical miles searching) and 0.25 for SPUE (the number of primary sightings per 1 hoursearching). Of the 142 common minke whales sighted, 58 common minke whales were sampled. In the sampling
process, there were no struck and lost animals. Fig.3 showed sighting positions of sampled whales. Distributionof these whales almost covered all of the areas where the sightings were made during the survey period.

Sightings of other large cetacean
During the survey, a total of 29 schools/ 32 individuals of humpback whales, one individual of fin whale, one
individual of sei whale, and 2 schools/ 2 individuals of sperm whales were sighted (Table 1). Sighting positionsof those whales are shown in Figure 4.

Sex ratio, body length and maturity of common minke whales caught
The 58 sampled whales were consisted of 41 males and 17 females (sex ratio of males was 0.71). Average bodylength of the whales was 6.77m (max=8.04, min=4.75, SD=0.88) for males, and 6.55m (max=8.68, min=4.42,
SD=1.39) for females, respectively (Table 3). Composition of sex and sexual maturity of the whales is listed inTable 4. Male with a single testis weight of 290g or more, and female had at least one corpus luteum or albicans
in their ovaries were determined as sexually mature. In males, 27 of 41 individuals (65.9%) were sexuallymature. This figure was higher than that of the last two years surveys, e.g. 54.3% in 2011, and 22.2% in 2012. In
females, seven of 17 individuals (42.9%) were sexually mature, and maturity ratio of females was also higher
than that of the last two years surveys, e.g. 12.0% in 2011, and 19.0% in 2012. Mature females were consistedof four resting animals and three pregnant animals. Body lengths of foetus found in the pregnant animals were111.2cm (female), 139.5cm (male), and 186.0cm (male), respectively.

Prey species of common minke whale found in the stomach
Following the same methods used in the JARPN II feasibility surveys (Fujise, et al., 2002), stomach contents
were weighted to the nearest 0.1 Kg by each four chamber in both cases of including and excluding liquid. Then,a sub-sample of stomach contents was collected and frozen for the later laboratory work. The weights offorestomach contents including liquid ranged from 3.0Kg to 86.1Kg, and average weight was 26.9Kg.
Table 5 shows the forestomach contents of the 58 collected whales. Dominant prey species was
Japanese sardine Sardinops melanostictus (63.8%), followed by walleye pollock Theragra chalcogramma(22.4%), mackerel Scomber japonicas (6.9%), krill Euphausia pacifica (5.2%) and Japanese common squid
Todarodes pacificus (1.7%). Among them, Japanese sardine was found from September to the middle of October,but disappeared in the late of October. Conversely, krill and Japanese common squid were only found in the lateof October. Japanese anchovy Engraulis japonicas, which was one of the major prey species found in thestomach in the previous surveys, was not detected in the present survey. Pacific saury Cololabis saira was also
not detected.

Observation of marine debris
Marine debris was detected from stomach of nine animals. Among them, eight animals had a small piece ofplastics (1-10cm), three animals had a rubber glove, and one animal had a cotton glove. A small plastic bottle(15cm) and the top of a can (ca.10cm) were found in the stomach of two animals.

DISCUSSION
The present survey was the eleventh survey of the JARPN II coastal component in the autumn season off
Kushiro. As same as the previous surveys, bad weather conditions such as typhoons, low atmospheric pressures3

and thick fog often disturbed research activities. Of total 50 day survey period, sampling vessels could conduct
the research for 20 days or 40.0%. This figure was lower than those of the previous surveys (e.g. 50.0% in 2012,
and 46.0% in 2013). However, the density index of common minke whales recorded by the sampling vessels(DI=2.48) was higher than that of the last year survey (DI=1.71, Yoshida et al., 2011). Especially, in September,many whales were sighted (DI=4.30), and high value of the DI suggested that the migration of common minke
whales in 2013 season was abundant, especially in September.
Figure 5 shows the body length compositions of common minke whales caught in 2013, withcomparison to the results of the previous 2002-2012 surveys. A characteristic of the composition in the present
survey is that there were many large males (7m in length class), compared with those of the previous 5 years
surveys (2008-2012). The composition of the present survey was similar to those of the 2004 to 2007. With
respect to the high value of the DI and the high value of the maturity ratio (Table 4), this indicated that many
whales including mature animals migrated in the coastal waters off Kushiro in 2013 autumn season.
Figure 6 shows the yearly change in the composition of prey species found in the stomach of common
minke whales through the 2002 to 2013 surveys. Until 2011, Japanese anchovy was one of the major preyspecies found in the stomach. In 2012, Japanese sardine and mackerels were first detected form the stomach(Yoshida et al., 2011), and in the present survey, Japanese sardine became the most dominant prey species.
Conversely, Japanese anchovy was disappeared in 2013. From late 1960’s to 1987, Japanese sardine andmackerel were recorded as the major prey species of common minke whales taken by the commercial whaling,
and also many amounts of those species were taken by coastal fisheries (Kasamatsu and Tanaka, 1992). After
that, abundance of Japanese sardine was decreased, and major species taken by the fisheries was shifted fromsardine to anchovy in 1990’s to 2000’s. This phenomenon was well known as the regime shift of marine
ecosystem or the alternation of the fish species (Schwartzlose, et al., 1999). However, in recent years, abundanceof Japanese sardine in the Pacific stock has been gradually increased again (Fisheries Research Agency, 2013),
and commercial catch of Japanese sardine in the Kushiro region in September 2013 was 12 times higher thanthat of the last year season. The drastic change of the dominant prey species in the stomach observed here were
well coincided with those recent information.
Japanese sardine was taken by both immature and mature whales (Fig.7). This suggested that Japanesesardine could be attracted both immature and mature common minke whales. Based on the previous survey,
Pacific saury was thought to be preferred by mature whales (Kishiro, et al., 2009). As shown in Figure 5 and 6,
when Pacific saury was detected in the stomach, large whales (especially 7m in length class) were frequently
taken as in 2004 to 2007. The body length composition of the present survey was similar to those of the 2004 to
2007, but no Pacific saury was detected. This implied that Japanese sardine instead of Pacific saury attracted
many common minke whales including mature animals in this season. The reason of the lack of Pacific saury inthis season might be due to fewer migration of Pacific saury in the restricted research area (within a 50 nautical
miles from the Kushiro port). Fishing grounds for Pacific saury during the present survey period were located in
the offshore waters far from the research area (Japan Fisheries Information Service Center, 2013).
Japanese common squid was taken by only mature animals as reported previously (Kishiro, et al., 2009),
but walleye pollock, which was thought to be preferred by immature animals, was taken by both immature andmature whales in this year (Fig. 7). Figure 8 shows geographical positions of the whales by their maturity status
and prey species found in the stomach. Mature animals distributed slightly offshore region, compared withimmature animals, but both immature and mature animals taking Japanese sardine were distributed widely, whileboth immature and mature animals taking walleye pollock were concentrated along the 200-500m isobaths on
the continental slop region. These results indicated that the whale stomach contents were affected by the
distribution of prey species, and mature animals also taking walleye pollock in some case.
Anyway, the present survey revealed an apparent change in the dominant prey species from Japanese
anchovy to Japanese sardine. These results suggested that the distribution and amount of those prey species in
the coastal waters off Kushiro were changed, and the stomach contents of the whales could reflect thoseenvironmental changes.
It has been six years from the first IWC review meeting for the JARPN II (IWC, 2009). After the
meeting reviewed the first results from 2002 to 2007, apparent change of the body length compositions of thewhales and prey species composition in the stomach were observed, as mentioned above. These changes are
might be related with the environmental change and the migration manner of the whales in the coastal waters off
Kushiro region. Such information is valuable in considering the habit of common minke whales within the samewaters in the long time scale, and will be contributed to the objectives of the JARPN II feeding ecology and4ecosystem studies. The analyses of the samples and data obtained through the surveys are ongoing with respect
to the various aspects such as the feeding ecology, stock structure, pollution, and ecosystem studies. These
progress and results will be presented at the future next IWC review meeting for the JARPN II.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors are greatly indebted to Dr. Hiroshi Hatanaka, the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), Dr. Seiji
Ohsumi (ICR) and Messrs. Yukoito Narisawa and Tadashi Konno, the Fisheries Agency of Japan for theirguidance and implementation of the research. We thank to all crew of the research vessels and all staff of theland station and the Japanese small-type whaling association. We also thank to the staff of the Kushiro City and
the Kushiro Fisheries Cooperative Union for their kind assistance in the implementation of the research.

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Table 1. Searching days, hours, distances, and number of sightings made by sampling vessels in the 2013JARPN
II coastal component off Kushiro.

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Table 2. Summary of biological data and samples collected during the 2013 JARPN II coastal component off
Kushiro.

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Table 3. Body length (m) of common minke whales sampled by the 2013 JARPN II coastal component off
Kushiro.

Table 4. Composition of sex and sexual maturity of common minke whales sampled by the 2013 JARPN II
coastal component off Kushiro.

Table 5. Number of common minke whales by major prey species found in their forestomach contents sampled
by the 2013 JARPN II coastal component off Kushiro.

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Fig.1. The IWC sub-area for western North Pacific minke whales (upper) and research area for the 2013 JARPN
II coastal component off Kushiro (lower).

Fig.2. Cruise tracks of the sampling vessels in the 2013 coastal component off Kushiro.

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Fig.3. Sighting positions of common minke whales in the 2013 coastal component off Kushiro.
Closed circle indicates sighting position of sampled whale.

Fig.4. Sighting positions of humpback (closed triangle), fin (open square), sei (open circle), and sperm whales(open triangle), in the 2013 coastal component off Kushiro.

10Fig 5. Body length frequency of common minke whales sampled during the 2013 coastal component off Kushiro, with comparison to the results of the previous surveys.

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Fig. 6. Composition of prey species of common minke whales sampled during the 2013 coastal component off
Kushiro, with comparison to the results of the previous surveys.

Fig.7. Sexual maturity and body length frequency of common minke whales by their major prey species found in
the forestomach in the 2013 coastal component off Kushiro.

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Fig.8. Sighting positions of common minke whales in the 2013 coastal component off Kushiro, by their sexual
maturity and major prey species found in the forestomach

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