Genetic research has shown that these two North Pacific populations are distinct, indicating that movement of individuals between the two populations is rare. However, the smaller Okhotsk Sea population, more heavily exploited in the past, remains at a dangerously low population of only a few hundred individuals. The most recent abundance estimate for the Western Arctic bowhead stock, collected during spring 2019, indicates there are approximately 12,505 Western Arctic bowheads, with a 95 percent confidence interval ranging from 7,994 to 19,560 whales. Western Arctic bowheads have shown considerable recovery since the end of commercial whaling in the early 1900s, and they now comprise the largest population of bowheads in the world. Bowhead whales are also listed as depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The United States listed all bowhead whales as endangered under the Endangered Species Conservation Act in 1970 and the Endangered Species Act in 1973. Commercial whaling drove global abundance down to less than 3,000 by the 1920s. The worldwide number of bowheads prior to commercial exploitation is estimated at a minimum of 50,000, including an estimated 10,400 to 23,000 whales in the Western Arctic stock, the stock found in U.S. Commercial whaling severely reduced bowhead whale numbers from historical levels.
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