“LOSING MILLIONS”

Southland Times, Issue 21093, 27 May 1930, Page 11

“LOSING MILLIONS”

AUSTRALIA’S NEGLECT OF

WHALING.

“Through her neglect of the whaling inlustry, Australia is losing millions of pounds annually, and also the opportunity to provide employment for thousands of Australian workmen,” declared Mr David G. Stead, the well-known Australian fisheries expert, before a very large and representative audience at Canberra, which included the Prime Minister (Mr Scullin) and many members of Parliament. Observations made by Sir Douglas Mawson during his recent Antarctic expedition, and the evidence of Norwegian whalers, said Mr Stead, showed clearly that the fields in which the great whales occurred were vastly greater in extent than was previously imagined. Off both the eastern and western coasts of Australia whales were to be found of exactly the same species as those pursued with so much profit in Antarctic waters. One species, the humpback whale, was of great economic importance to the Commonwealth, because the species found in Australian waters was fatter and congregated in greater numbers than elsewhere. Apparently the hump-back whales migrated annually to certain fixed points off the Australian coast in precisely the same fashion as the eels of European and American waters migrated to certain areas of the southern Atlantic. One such point was north of Point Cloates, and there Norwegian whalers, with only four chasers, had taken 1036 whales in one season. The great blue whale, the largest of all the whale kind, was also to be found off the eastern and western Australian coasts. Both the hurnp-backs and the blue whales grew with marvellous rapidity, attaining maturity in three years. Mr Stead said that for more than 20 years Australians had allowed the people of another nation to exploit the wealth of seas which geographically, at least, belonged to the Commonwealth. He pointed out that the refining of whale oil in Australia on a large scale would provide employment for thousands of people, and he added that there was no danger of a glut in the products of the industry, because these were such necessary commodities as margarine, soap,, lubricants and glycerine.