ROSS SEA WHALING

Hokitika Guardian, 4 October 1927, Page 4

ROSS SEA WHALING

UN LICENSED FACTORY OPERATING. AVELLINGTON, Sept. 30. Tlie Norwegian whaling company which operated two floating factories and ten whalers in Ross Sea under license from the New Zealand Government took 78G whales, producing 70,300 barrels of oil. According to tbe Afar-iu-e Department the past season as a whole has been a profitable one for the licensees, but tbe results of tlie two floating factories, taken separately, show a good season for the C. A. Larsen and a poor one for the factory Sir James Clark Ross. Tn this respect the poorness of the season must not be taken as an indication that whales were scarce, as other factors such as bad weather, bad ice conditions, etc. were the cause of much working time being lost during the season. The report calls attention to the necessity of securing international control over whale fishing, an unlicensed floating factory having pursued whaling in tbe Ross Dependency by carrying on operations outside the territorial waters of that dependency. The Norwegian floating factory, N. T. Neil-son-Alonso. 9232 tons, with four whale catchers, operated in the Ross Sea this season. “This factory, using Hobart. Tasmania, as a base, is reported to have secured about 30,000 barrels of oil, a fairly profitable result, which, in all probability will induce them to retain again next season, and may induce others to follow.” states the report. “This unlicensed factory with her whale catchers was seen in the Ross Sea by our official representative, but as slie apparently confined lier whaling operations to areas beyond the territorial limits of the Ross Dependency she could not lie interfered with. It is reported that her method of dealing with whale carcases did not comply with the exacting conditions under "Inch licenses are required to work, and that when whales were plentiful tlie whales used by her were stripped it their blubber only, and the carcase ißowed to float away, a very wasteful

procedure, whereas our licensees are under the terms of the license issued bv this department required to utilise whale carcases to their fullest possible extent, and they are not allowed to discard them unless they have been so utilised. “In anticipation of such unlicensed operations this department, as far as existing legislation permitted, made regulations governing the whaling industry in the Ross Dependency, but as such can have application to territorial waters only, the unlicensed factory, which apparently did not enter territorial waters, was enabled to carry on its operations without any restriction or interference. The attention of the Imperial authorities has been drawn to this and it is hoped some action may be taken so as more effectively to control the capture of whales in Ross Dependency.” - As to- the possibility of destroying whales in the Ross Sea as a direct progestion is that the total extinction of vhales in the Ross Sea as a direct process by whalers is highly improvable, as the capture of whales would necessarily cease when they became sufficiently numerous to be hunted with profit, but there would then remain a considerable number of whale* to pro-

I pagate their species. The enormous cost of a whaling expedition, such as visits the Ross Sea and the loss involved in a poor season is a very healthy check to over-fishing.