THE SOUTH SEA WHALING INDUSTRY.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 26, 23 September 1893, Page 8

THE SOUTH SEA WHALING INDUSTRY.

A good deal has been heard of late about the proposed resumption of the whaling industry in Southern waters. The subject is one of great interest to this colony, hut if a correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald is accepted as an authority, the prospects of success of the venture are not of the brightest—that is, so far as the idea of following the fish to the confines of the Antarctic belt is concerned. On this point the gentleman referred to —Mr T. Moser—writes : —“ I was in Wellington, H.Z., in 1851, when the fleet of the South Sea Whaling Company, under the management of the Messrs. Enderby, returned from the depot at the Auckland Islands, and when the latter was broken up. The tale the captains of the ships had to tell was one of dismal failure and disaster. I may safely say that, despite active cruising in the low latitudes, not one single wljale was ever, captured. Indeed the only oil obtained by the j expedition was from a.large school of

black-fish which got embayed in the roadstead where the settlement was formed on the islands. My friend, Mr Gr. 10. Crane, who was one of the officers of the company, bears me out in this statement. The fact was that the weather was so tempestuous when approaching the Antarctic,, that not only was it impossible to launch, any boats but the very safety of the ships was impeiilled. Unless, therefore, there is good reason for believing thatremarkable climatic changes have taken place in those low latitudes, which by no means appears to be the case from the reports of sailing ships which pass through them, I fear not much chance exists of prosecuting the enterprise successfully in the far South. Mr Moser also points out that the reports of the Dundee expedition to the Antarctic seas show that the whales which frequent them are of no commercial value. “Of course/' he adds, “quite another point would be made for by ships from Australian ports, and the conditions of marine life might vary when it is reached,, but the prospect does not appear too encouraging for investors in the proposed venture.” All the same the project has a peculiar fascination apart altogether from its business aspects, and the cost of sending’ an expedition to those regions would from a scientific point of view, be money well spent.