Some bowheads produce long repetitive songs that may be related to mating display. They also breach, tail slap, and spy-hop, which may also be mating display. Sexual activity occurs between pairs and in boisterous groups of several males and one or two females. Scars from killer whale teeth and ship propellers are sometimes found on their backs and flukes. Some bowheads die from becoming wrapped in fishing gear lines.
Oil spills are a serious potential danger to bowheads.
Ice sometimes blocks their movements, and they may starve or suffocate if they cannot get to open water. Between the 1600s and 1800s, the eastern arctic stocks of bowheads were reduced from over 30,000 animals to less than 1,000. They remain severely depleted. The Bering Sea stock originally numbered about 18,000 whales and was greatly reduced in the 1800s and early 1900s. It is currently increasing and the population estimate was 6,400 to 9,200 in 1992.