Figure 3. Estimated carrying capacity for North Pacific gray whales determined by benthos availability (<75 m) during the last 120 ka.

Dashed gray lines indicate current gray whale population size and red lines show harmonic means for carrying capacity estimates. A) Total and regional North Pacific unconstrained carrying capacities. Gray box indicates range of population size suggested by analysis of genetic diversity [15]. B) Total and regional North Pacific carrying capacities constrained to 22 k gray whales; see Table 2; C) Unconstrained, estimated carrying capacities of non-glaciated regions in the western and eastern Pacific; D) Estimated carry capacities of non-glaciated regions in the western and eastern Pacific constrained to 22 k gray whales; see Table 2.