WHALE FISHERIES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 198, 10 May 1918, Page 6

WHALE FISHERIES

MONEY IN THE ASJTAECTIC. A' cablegram from Eondcm mentions; that the Colonial Office'has iiplpoiuted a. committee "to inquire regarding the preservation of the whaling industry and. to investigate the economic and .tcientiUc possibilities of the Falkland Is and.. South Georgia, the. South .Shetland ad Grahumland." This committee evidently forms a part of the big organisation that the Imperial Government is creating- loi the commercial development of the icsources of the Empire. , The fact tin* the Imperial authorities are giving serious -attention to thai possibilities of the? whale fisheries in the. Atlantic sector of the Antarctic illustrates the practical value of Antarctic ■■ exploration. There can be little doubt: that the investigation now proposed is a result of Sir Ernest Sbackletons expedition of 19H-17. When Sir Ernest. Shnckleton went south will his ship, the Endurance, at the ewl of 1914, no called' at the winding station at Grylviken, in South Georgia. He- found there a flourishing settlement run by Norwegians, who were undertaking whaling operations on a large scale and treating llie> carcasses of the whales in properly equipped factories. He learned that the whaling captains had been pushing southward into the Weddell Sea and had gathered much information regarding conditions there not ordinarily avjulv able. From South Georgia Sir Ernest Shackle ton pushed into the Weddell Sea wittf. the object of reaching the coartt of the. Antarctic Continent as far south, as possible. 'Ho reached unknown coastline,, became locked in the ice. and eventually lost his ship in the grip of the floes.. But before the Endurance began to drift- helplessly with the pack-ice, she had steamed and tailed hundreds of miles through loose ice and areas of open water in the Weddell Sea. Sir Ernest Shackleton and his comrades noticed there that v;hnles of several varieties were very numerous. It seemed as if the big mammals bad taken refuga in waters'that have rarely been furrowed bv the keels of ships. Undoubtedly there are whales to be. caught in the Antarctic. But the day has passed when a whaling ship, with a carco of emnty barrels and with iron try-pots mounted on deck, could bring fortunes to her owners by enpturing whales at sea and stripping the outer blubber from them. The his and easilykilled whales have become scarce. The smaller and more active whales cannot be killed with 'the harpoon, and when thev are taken their carcasses must be handled effectively if the hunt is to be profitable. The modern wOialing ship carries light guns for the 6hooting of whales, and it works from it base on. shore. where a factory can Tie erected for the treatment of the carcases. The. whole whale is used, the refuse after tho removal of the blubber, bo.oe. etc.. beine- turned into fertiliser. The American Pood Controller at the present time is trying, in conjunction with son\e enterprising firms, to popularise whale meat in the United States. He states that if the people will eat this "l;<ecf many thousands of tons can be broil r''t. fresh, frozen and tinned, from the Pacific whale fisheries.