A Pygmy Blue Whale (Cetacea: Balaenopteridae) in the Inshore Waters of New Caledonia

The occurrence of a blue whale is reported for the first time for the New Caledonian archipelago. The whale, a juvenile male in poor condition, entered the shallow inshore waters of the coral reef lagoon (22 0 19-24' S, 166 46-52' E) where it spent at least 1 month until it was killed by whaler sharks on 27 January 2002. Live observations, examination of photographic documents, and skull osteology indicated that this was a pygmy blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda. Nucleotide sequences of PCR-amplified fragments of its mitochondrial DNA were determined and compared with the few published homologous sequences of North Atlantic blue whales, B. m. musculus, but no obvious differences were apparent. ALTHOUGH BLUE WHALES are among the most cosmopolitan marine mammals, sightings of blue whales in the Southwest Pacific are reportedly scarce, and all of these but a single sighting at the equator at about 1700 E occurred south of 300 S in the austral summer (Kato et al. 1995, Reeves et al. 1999). Groups of blue whales were observed in the vicinity of the Solomon Islands in August 1957, but no blue whale has been reported from the Southwest Pacific since then (Reeves et al. 1999). Historical catch records show the geographic segregation of two major concentrations of blue whales in the Southern Hemisphere during the austral summer: one north of the Antarctic convergence mainly between 25 0 E and 80 E, the other south of the Antarctic convergence mainly between 55 E and 90 W (Ichihara 1966). The strong correlation of geographical location I Manuscript accepted 21 October 2003. 2 Institut de Recherche pour Ie Developpement, Departement des Ressources Vivantes, BP A5, 98848 Noumea cedex, Nouvelle-Caledonie (phone: +687 260741; fax: +687 264326; e-mail: [email protected]