Translation 2783

White Whale (Delphinapterus leucas)
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White whales have been observed in the Beaufort Sea, near
Banks Island, in summer. They are common in Alaskan waters. • They
are often seen in river estuaries, and sometimes ascend rivers (the
Yukon river, etc.) for 700 km.
They •are seldom .seen south of Cook
Bay; tho most southerly sighting reported was from the state of
Washington in the U.S.A., at 48 ° K.
On the coasts of Asia white whales are known to occur in the
East Siberian and Chukchi Seas and in the southern part of the Bering
Sea from Mechigmenskii Bay (where they are found all year round)
northward. They appear in the Gulf of Anadyr after the ice breaks
up and remain there from June to September or October. They stay in
Bering Strait throughout the year, but are most often seen in February
and in May and June.
White whales are found in the Sea of Okhotsk, from the northern
part of Tatarskii Strait along the whole coast of the continent.
They are seen on the west coast.of Kamchatka in summer and autumn,
mostly in the waters in front of river estuaries during the spawning
migrations of fishes:
is also associated with fish migrations.
The movement of white whales in Sakhalin Bay
White whales in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea, as in
other regions, spend the winter not only in open parts of the sea
but also in ice-fields where there are air-holes and patches of open
water, not going beyond the boundaries of these seas.
Depending on the region in which they live, white whales '
feed on various fish species (herring, navaga, Arctic cod, and pink
and chum salmon) and on some invertebrates
The females attain sexual maturity at a body length of 320
cm or more, and the males at about 340 cm, at the age of two OT three
years. Kew-born calves are 170 cm long in Far Eastern waters.
parturition period is prolonged and lasts from March to July, with
peaks in late March and April and from the middle to the end of May.
Data on the take of white whales are gdven in Appendix 12.
The weight of adult males reaches 1.5 tons, and that of
females 1.4 tons. The oil obtained from the subcutaneous blubber
layer is used for oiling hides and for soap-making, for medicinal
tanned
i.mrposes, and also in food industries. The hides are usau for
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