Eubalaena australis (Chile-Peru subpopulation)

Southern right whales have a circumpolar distribution in the Southern Hemisphere, but various breeding components of this species are concentrated near coastlines in the northern part of the range. In the case of Chile-Peru, the northernmost sighting is from 15° 08’ S in Bahia San Fernando, Peru. During the austral winter and spring, these whales are known from southern Peru (Santillan et al. 2004) to central Chile (Aguayo and Torres 1986, Aguayo et al. 1992). During the same seasons, they are observed passing through coastal waters between southern Peru and central Chile. The right whales in this population need to be considered isolated due to their breeding location and lack of any observable increase in numbers over the past four decades.

Best (1987) estimated that American whalers in the 19^th century killed over 14,600 southern right whales in the South Pacific, but he did not attempt to allocate the catch to any geographic regions. French whalers in the 19^th century took about 2,372 right whales along the coast of Chile (Du Pasquier 1986). These estimates do not include any allowance for struck and lost animals. During the 20^th century between 1929 and 1966, a total of 119 right whales were killed by shore-based whalers in Chilean waters (Aguayo 1974). In only two decades between 1951 and 1971, Soviet pelagic whaling operations killed at least 3,368 right whales in the Southern Hemisphere (Tormosov et al. 1998). These catches occurred in all the major habitats where right whales are known to be increasing today but none of these Soviet catches occurred in the waters off Chile and Peru.

The IWC conducted its last major review of southern right whales in 1998 (IWC 2001), but little information was available for the whales in the waters off Chile and Peru. Between 1964 and 1991, only 16 female-calf pairs were recorded from south-central to northern Chile and none from Peru (Van Waerebeek et al. 1998). The first female-calf pair in southern Peru was recorded in 1996 (Van Waerebeek et al. 1998). There were no known major catches by coastal whalers off Chile in the past and Peru during the 20^th century and no catches in this region by Soviet pelagic operations between the 1950s and early 1970s. Thus, it is surprising that no increase has been observed in this subpopulation. Other subpopulations (Australia, Argentina and South Africa) have shown increases with doubling of times around 10-12 years. The maximum 1-day count of only four whales (Aguayo et al. 1992) is extremely low compared to maximum daily counts of 15, 40, 155 and 256 (2 days) off southeast Australia, southwest Australia, Argentina, and South Africa respectively (IWC 2001).

Based of sightings of right whales in recent years off Chile, all coastal waters appear to be important areas used as migratory corridors. Southern right whale habitat is poorly known because of the small population size. Females have been recorded with calves in southern Peru 15°– 17° S, Antofagasta, Chile 23°-25°S, Valparaiso, Chile (31°-33°S), and Arauco to Osorno, Chile (37°-40°S), and there is a single record from Punta Arenas, Chile (53°S). Females in other populations produce calves at 3-5 year intervals and calves are born between June and October with a peak in August (Best 1994). The diet consists mainly of copepods and euphausiids (Tormosov et al. 1998).

Southern right whales have been protected from commercial whaling through international agreements in1935 and 1946, but not in Chile where the last right whale was killed in 1966 (Aguayo 1974). Although right whales were taken illegally by Soviet pelagic fleets until the early 1970s, none of these were taken in the southeast Pacific. No specific protection areas exist in Chile and Peru for right whales.