AN OLD INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 136, 10 June 1937, Page 10

AN OLD INDUSTRY

IN QUEST OF WHALES

UNRESTRICTED SLAUGHTER

PAST KILLINGS

The agreement signed this week in London by representatives of various countries, providing for a nine months' close season for pelagic, whaling and also absolute prohibition of whaling in certain areas, recalls the concern felt in New Zealand and elsewhere in recent years of what is termed, the "unrestricted slaughter of whales" in the Antarctic.

As long ago as 1930 the authorities in New Zealand were seeking some sort of control over whaling operations on the grounds that the increasing number' of expeditions to the Ross Sea would result in the stock being depleted at a rate greater than natural reproduction would be able to balance. In its 1929-30 report, the Marine Department stated that the Department had been seriously concerned in the matter of preservation of .the fishery ever since the first visit of an unlicensed factory ship in the 1926-27 season, when the questions of regulating catching capacity and compelling the extraction of oil from the whole carcass was taken up by the Home authorities. It was realised that as all the catching could be done in international waters, which were free to all, effective regulation in all necessary respects could be achieved only by in.ternational agreement. The Norwegian Government had made its own law on the subject, but this was limited practically to requiring all Norwegian vessels to be licensed and to observe certain regulations designed to prevent waste. In 1930 the Economic Committee of the League of Nations considered the question, with the result that a committee of experts was set up and met in Geneva in the spring of that year. The draft convention drawn up in 1931 followed very much, in practical matters, on the Norwegian law, but it fell short of regulating killing power —that is to say, regulation of the number of vessels which might engage in whaling under licence. In subsequent years agreements were made to preserve the whaling grounds of the world by preventing indiscriminate killing of whales and to protect the industry through the regulation of catches and seasons. Certain countries, however disregarded these' agreements,: and some authorities considered that the unrestricted killing of the stock would result in the complete extinction of whales in the Antarctic within a few years. In September of last year the British Government withdrew the regulation imposing on whaling ships registered in the United Kingdom a close season for whaling in Antarctic waters, and imposed on such ships such regulations only as were required by the 1931 International Convention for the protection of whales. RECORD OF KILLINGS The first ship to operate in the Ross Sea Dependency was the old Sir James Clark Ross, which visited the whaling area in the 1923-24 season and for the next two seasons alone. She was joined by the C. A. Larsen and the C. T Nielson Alonso for the 1926-27 season, and in the 1029-30 season the Kosmos and Southern Princess came on the scene After the 1932 season whaling operations were almost halted, and it was not until last year that Wellington was again visi'li by a factory ship. This was the British-owned ship AngloNorse. The following table shows the number of whales taken and the whale oil secured during the years when the most extensive whaling operations were carried out:—

I Number Season. Whale factory. whales, of nit S 1923-21 Sir James Clark Boss 221 17,701 1924-25 Sir James Clark Boss 427 32,1(13 1923-26 Sir James Clark Hoss 531 :i7,700 1926-27 Sir James Clark Ites 254 22.800 1926-27 C. A. Larsen 532 47^500 1927-2S* X. T. Nielsen Alonso 72.1 r.R.ono 1927-28 Sir James Clark Ross filli -IS.OOO 1927-28 C. A. Larsen S3!) 76.000 1927-28* X. T. Nielsen Alonso 72.1 r.5.000 1928-29 Sir James Clark Boss M.I 49,000 1928-21) C. A. Larsen 79'; 73.000 1928-21)* N. T. Nielsen Alon-o Tf.r, C 3.500 1929-30 Sir James Clark Eoss 4iO 30.820 1929-3(1 C. A. Larsen 10S2 77.000 1929-50 Southern Princess ~ 874 111,370 1929-30* N. T. Nielsen Alonso 745 1)6.000 1929-30* Kosmos 1822 116.000 1930-31 Sir James Clark Boss 1413 ] 12,5(11) 1930-31 Kosmof' — 160,000 1930-31* N. T. Nielsen Alonso — 105,000 ' 1.250.14S •"Unlicensed factories whose records it has not

•"Unlicensed factories whose records It has not been possible to authenticate. • One barrel Is equal to 40 Imperial gallons.

Last season the new Japanese whaling factory ship Nisshin Maru on her maiden voyage to the Antarctic captured 1016 whales which yielded 15,300 tons of oil.

CONTRAST IN METHODS. Whaling in the old days was a crude business, and as a result the slaughter was not sufficient to cause much concern at the depletion of stock. Crude and perilous as it was, however, the old whaling methods were effective against the right and sperm whales. These moved slowly enough for an oar : propelled boat to get within harpooning distance and when they were killed they did not sink. These whales, which had given the hunters such a rich harvest, became fewer and fewer until hunting them was not worth while, and so whaling languished. Blue whale and humpbacks were still plentiful in the Antarctic, but they were too speedy to be caught by hand harpoons from slowly-moving boats. Even if they were caught they sank when killed and the small whaleboats could not keep them on the surface. The invention of the harpoon gun by Svend Foyn created new interest in whaling. With the gun came fast, steam-driven chasers and compressors, which forced air into the whale's carcass to keep it afloat until *it could be taken to the base and boiled down. At first there were no factory ships. AH the refining was done at land stations at South Georgia, the South Shetlands, and Deception Island to which the chasers brought their catches. Owing to the fact that oil deteriorates.rapidly after the whale is killed the chasers could work only in seas close to their bases. These modern whalers, however, soon found a way out of this difficulty. Old second-hand steamers were converted into floating factories with slipways cut in the bow or stern through which the whale could be hauled aboard for cutting up and refining.

But such has been the progress of the industry that today there are specially-built ships for whaling. Not only are they equipped to boil down carcasses for oil, but they have machinery to grind the bones for bonemeal and furnaces to burn the meat to make fertiliser. Some of them even have machinery for canning the meat, which is considered a palatable food in many countries.

It is no wonder, therefore, that with the modern whaling methods the prey has little chance of escape and that natural reproduction must suffer,