Reply to the comment by Romero and Kannada on Genetic analysis of 16th-century whale bones prompts a revision of the impact of Basque whaling on right and bowhead whales in the western North Atlantic

The comment by Romero and Kannada is presented as a critique of our previous work and suggests that our conclusions are in direct conflict with the historic whaling information reviewed in their paper. However, the critique is based on a misinterpretation of the geographical, temporal, and taxonomic focus of our previous work. The source of the putative conflict appears to stem from the misinterpretation that our results, focused solely on the impact of Basque whaling in the 16th and 17th centuries on the western North Atlantic right whale, were intended to be representative of all whaling of both right and bowhead whales throughout the North Atlantic. To demonstrate this, we briefly review our original results and conclusions and show that the information reviewed by Romero and Kannada does not challenge any aspect of our original work. As such, their comment is not a critique of our paper, but rather a brief review of the history of whaling in the North Atlantic.