EXCITING CHASE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19177, 7 December 1927, Page 18

EXCITING CHASE.

RIGHT WHALE CAUGHT.

(press associatiox telegram.)

WELLINGTON, December 6,

A party of whalers in Tory Channel had quite a stirring time on Tuesday j of last week, when Arthur Heberly, the well-known whaler, chased a right whale in the Channel for well over an hour before he managed to harpoon it. It is reported that the whale showed great fight and after being harpooned charged the launch, the Orea, and only skilful seamanship saved serious consequences. The whale was actually under, the launch when finally bombed. It took two and a half hours' chasing and killing. The right whale is valuable, not only for its oil, but for the whalebone or sieve-like teeth. It is estimated that the whale caught will produce about nine tons of oil and about four hundredweight of bone and should be worth approximately £3040. This is said to be the first time in about twenty years that a right whale has been caught in the Channel, and it is only very occasionally now that one is secured in the Strait. The species usually caught is the humpback, a different type altogether. It has been reported that a sperm whale was seen recently off the Kaikouras. The intensity of the slaughter of sperm and right whales in the period round about 1830 almost made both these species extinct.