WHALING

Hokitika Guardian, 7 May 1929, Page 7

WHALING

IS IT GROWING TOO FAST. OLSO, March 20. In Eastern Norway—at the mouth of the • famous Oslol'jord are three thrifty towns, Sandefjord, Toensberg, and Lurvik, which are the homes ol me Norwegian whaling fleet. From these towns the whalers for generations went 'jut on catching expeditions, at first in home waters and in me Arctic Ocean, later to more distant parts of the world. Gradually the whalers from the .oasts of their home country—where .vfiale-liunting has been forbidden since IUU4 in view of the fisheries — ..cut to Iceland and Spitsbergen, Shetland, Oritncy, and the Faroe Islands, to Spain and Africa, to Newfoundland, Japan, and Australia, to the Sou lb Seas and the Antarctic.

Everywhere where whales occurred Norwegian' stationary oil factories were erected. The fleets of small whaleboats hunted the whales and ooit them to the stations on shore, /here the oil factory at once started the transformation of the animals liito oil and guano. Here the whales were flensed (ie., stripped of their thick coating of blubber and put into mrge boilers for oil extraction). In the beginning only blubber was utilised, but later oil oil was also' gained .'rom the meat and bones and guano actories were erected.

But tne stationary oil factories limited the range of the catching to .mailer areas and gradually the Norwegian companies therefore took up the modern method with large floating li) factories (vessels ranging up to .B,WO and 22,U00 tons), where the anmais can be utilised directly after be:ig caught in the open sea. It is a good illustration of the nodernisntion of the whaling industry, hat, while a few years ago it took rom three to four days to flense one small whale for 60 to 70 barrels ol ,il, the newest floating oil factories are .apable of flensing, up to 15 great iluowhales for 1,500 barrels of oil in a lay. HARPOON GUNS AND GUNNERS. The invention that started the industrialisation of the whale-hunting was the shell harpoon gun—evolved by the “father of Norwegian whaling,” Mr Svend Foyn, of Toensberg, in 1868. This invention totally revolutionised hunting, as the old method of the whaleboat and the hand harpoon was very inefficient against the swift and dangerous “fin” whales. With the shall harpoon, which explodes in the body of the whale, the catching possibilities have increased tremendously.

The 5,000 or 6,000 men who every .eason take part in the whaling expeditions are selected men among Norway’s sailors, men “whose powers of endurance, patience, and courage are oeerless.” The crews of the whaling fleet are the best paid in the world, md the captains and gunners of the miall whaling vessels are better paid than most men in Norway. The remit of an expedition, of course, dejends largely on the gunners and their ability to get the most out of the •omparatively short season. The ships start from Norwegian ports in the autumn and begin the :atelling in October and November, .ontinuing until March and April.

In the three towns of Toensberg, Sandefjord, and Larvik, a population if at least 25,000 is interested in the whaling industry. Thousands are engaged in the equipment of the fleet, jtlier thousands in the reparation and milding of whaling vessels, and many .fliers in the earnings of the whaling ompanies as shareholders.' The list of whaling shares on the Oslo Exchange contains about 20 companies, with a total of about 60,000,000

kroner. Jn 1918 Norway had- only eight whaling companies, with a total outout of 147,000 barrels of whale oil, working. Now the whaling fleet includes about 75 ships and 23 floating factories, with a total tank capacity of more than a million barrels. These numbers will be increased, as numerous y cssio^s several large floating factories are now being built or rebuilt in Norway, England, and olsehere. One of Norway’s whaling pioneers, Mr Lars Christensen, ol Snndefjord, reckons that the number of whaleboats controlled- by Norwegians is 114 and that this number from next season will increase to 148. This means that the catching will increase substantially.

The question of increase is naturally of great importance to Norway and preparations are being made for new scientific studies of whalestock and the much-discussed problem of whale extermination. If the expansion of the last few years is continued, Mr Christensen believes that the consequences may soon be .serious for the whaling industry.