• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.475-482
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• 2019

Over 3,200 large baleen whales including 3,173 fin whales, 7 blue whales and 28 humpback whales were hunted by Japanese whaling companies in the Yellow Sea during Japanese colonial period (1916~1944). As a result, these large baleen whales are under the endangered state in the Yellow Sea. The Yellow Sea had good living conditions for large baleen whales in the water temperature ($4{\sim}26^{\circ}C$) and food supply. The whaling on the large baleen whales was carried out mainly from early winter to late spring. The possibility of large scale whaling was caused by the migration of these baleen whales from other areas for the feeding on abundances of Euphausia pacifica in the surface layer during these seasons. During summer and autumn season, the baleen whales moved to other areas (good feeding ground as Woolsan offshore waters), because Euphausia pacifica stayed below the strong themocline which was formed from June to October in the Yellow Sea.