ANTARCTIC WHALING.

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17748, 21 March 1927, Page 4

ANTARCTIC WHALING.

• he n'eed for concerted British ac:on to conserve the whaling indasin the Antarctic is forcibly imn cssed by Sir Douglas Mawson's - vmments on the existing state of - 'fairs. Unless something be done U; control present operations, •vaales may become extinct in this region within twenty years. They : appear to travel round the pola." : continent from west to east by a « regnlar migration; and if, as seems 'to be the fact, whaling operations ' are conducted without any regulatI ing control, by organisations at difi ferent points and in callous rivalry, | the end of the industry is in sight- ! The Ross Sea Company; a NorwegI ian organisation, is operating in | the area under this Dominion's ad1 ministration. Its ships, using New Zealand as a base, have just had a very profitable season, and they report the presence in the' Ross Sea of a rival fleet with its base at Hohart. Australia, however, has no mrisdiction over any portion of the Antarctic, althqugh it has every claim to representation there. The position, from the points of view of both New Zealand and Australiav is very unsatisfactory. A rich whaling field, over which British jurisdici tion ought to be operative, is being ' exnoited by foreign companies. and ; is "in dlnger of being worked to i utter exhaustion. Australia's claim ! to an area continuous with New j Zealand's and including Adelie i Land should be asserted by the ! Commonwealth Government, and a j further arrangement, providing for British or international regulation of whaling along the whole fringe of the Antarctic continent, should be instituted by British action. It is to be hoped that Sir Douglas Mawson's represer^tations will lead to adequate scientific investigation and jvery active measures to prevent the region's passing into the hands of either foreign or lawless exploiters.