WHALING OPERATIONS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 May 1928, Page 4

WHALING OPERATIONS

A MONSTER rdl ARK. AUCKLAND. Max 11 “A good season, very good indeed.” The .spun Her was Captain H. I'. Cook, of the wliabr llananui. which is paying a visit lo Auckland for her annual refit. He said that the haul for the season was seventyfour whales, one of the best on record, and generally the weather was favourable for the operations. For over fifty years Captain Cook bus been after whales, and lie has a right to claim that he knows quite a lot about them. Originally the pursuit used to lie from a shore station with [boats. Later the whales were netted between the coast and an island oil' Whaiigamumu, hut (hi modern method is a small whaling steamer equipped with a harpoon gun. Captain Cook considered that the whales were not getting less plentiful. The Hnnniiiifs. base was at Whangarntimu, and the practice in t'iie whaling season was lo cruise off the coast, the limit being between twenty and thirty miles to sea. 'I he humpback was the variety found on the Auckland coast, one that had no connection with the blue whale', which has been so enthusiastically pursued by the Norwegian whalers in Antarctic seas. At a fixed time every year humpbacks began to go north, following the coastline on then' way to tropic seas to breed. It was once thought that all whales northward hound followed a definite track, which look them through the narrow channel between the island off Whangamumn and the mainland, hut evidence of recent years- is that they cruise over a good deal of ocean space and were it not for the (act that the pursuit was in a steam whaler there would he. no chance of getting them. It in interesting to recall that on one occasion a whale was sighted of! Cape Brett, and the same whale a fortnight later fell a victim to a whaling party off Tonga, identification being possible as a result of peculiar marking. A couple of' seasons ago a mammoth shark decided to adopt the vicinity of Whangamumn as its permanent headquarters, and made such a general nuisance of itself to the whalers that it was located one fine morning and harpooned. It put all the northland big game fish to shame bv measuring out at something over 20ft in length, and one of its .raws is kept on the Hananui as a memento of an exciting occasion.