Dear MARMAM community, on behalf of my co authors, I am pleased to share with you the publication on *ICES Journal of Marine Science* of our recent research: The missing whales: relevance of “struck and lost” rates for the impact assessment of historical whaling in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean Morgana Vighi, Asunción Borrell, Jennifer A Jackson, Emma L Carroll, Maria Grazia Pennino, Alex Aguilar Abstract: The massive impact that open-boat historical whaling (18th to 20th centuries) had on whale populations has been traditionally estimated from records of oil and baleen plate production. However, an unknown proportion of hunted whales were struck, wounded, eventually killed, but lost, and not included in these records, suggesting that whaling impact may be critically underestimated. Whaling logbooks provide a key source for assessing past catches and losses. Here, we extract detailed records of 19875 days of activity in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean from 255 logbooks of offshore whaling voyages. During the period considered (1776–1923), whalers first targeted southern right whales (Eubalaena australis, 2497 sightings and 658 catches), gradually substituted by sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus, 1157 sightings and 843 catches) after 1840. Loss rate factors, calculated to account for the number of “struck and lost” whales, decreased across time for both species, and were particularly high (ranging 1.09–1.6) for the southern right whale, whose population was drastically reduced by whaling, as compared to previous estimates based on rough catch records. Accurate accounting for these “lost” individuals is essential for reconstructing the impact of whaling on cetacean populations and for a proper assessment of their initial population size and demographic trends. The article is open access and freely available online at https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa205. Don't hesitate to contact me for any questions or curiosities regarding our research. All the best, Morgana -- Morgana Vighi, PhD +34 633656763 +39 3388269806 skype: morgana.vighi