LACK OF POPULATION SUBDIVISION AMONG THE MINKE WHALES (BALAENOPTERA-ACUTOROSTRATA) FROM ICELANDIC AND NORWEGIAN WATERS BASED ON MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA SEQUENCES

The minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) is subject to commercial whaling, but stock identification and assessment are still uncertain. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences were determined to examine the pop ulation structure of minke whales from the central and northeastern pa rts of the North Atlantic, as well as the Antarctic regions IV and V. The analyses include 345 nucleotide positions of the control region of 110 individuals, and 250 nucleotide positions of the NADH dehydrogena se subunit 2 gene for a representative selection of North Atlantic min ke whales. Maximum parsimony analyses and sequence divergence calculat ions did not reveal any genetic differentiation between individuals fr om the central and northeastern parts of the North Atlantic. These res ults do not support the International Whaling Commission's separation of minke whales in this area into different management units, and they are in conflict with previously reported results from allozyme analys es. Comparison-df minke whale control region sequences showed that the sequence diversity of North Atlantic minke whales is substantially lo wer (0.0065) than that of Antarctic minke whales (0.0166), and clearly demonstrated that individuals from these two areas represent genetica lly distinct populations.