WHALES

Hokitika Guardian, 24 May 1929, Page 6

WHALES

NECESSITY FOR RESTRICTION

LONDON, April 6. “ Unless measures are adopted to restrict the destruction of whales in the Antarctic they will become extinct there in a few years,” said Sir Sidney Harmer, former Director of the Natural History Department of the British M useum, yesterday.

“ They are already extinct in the seas surrounding Greenland, Spitsbergen, and Newfoundland, where they once abounded.” Civilisation cannot afford to dispense with tlie whale. Every part of it is oi use. It has even capitalised its own dietetic indiscretions. Ambergris, the basis of most perfumes, is tbe result of them. 'File sperm whale eats cuttlefish, beaks and all. The resulting undigested mass is ambergris, which sells for {Jo an ounce. Other whale sieve their food 'through a mesh of gristle. They do not produce ambergris, hut the mesh itself is 2Gcwt of whalebone. Spermaceti is stored in a hollow in a whale’s skull. It is the basis of the better soaps. Scots in the Isle of Harris pickle whale flesh and ship it to Congo. Tn its fresh state this meat is the staple food of almost all Japan. It is canned on the Pacific Coast of the United States as bully-beef. A very good imitation of porcelain is made from the whale’s ground-up hones. Shoes are made from its intestines Other part provide valuable manures glycerine and lubricating oil.