Profits from Whaling

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 774, 21 September 1929, Page 10

Profits from Whaling

Dominion’s Lost Opportunity

FERE appears to be little chance for the survival of the whaling industry if this season’s fleet of factory-ships and chasers to the Antarctic Circle accurately heralds the operations of the future. New Zealand has already learned an expensive lesson by the leniency of her whaling regulations, but the prospect of four expeditions working this year in the Ross Sea raises the possibility of the complete extinction of the whale from these waters before very long.

It is now palpably clear that the whaling rights of the Ross Sea Dependency have been sacrificed so far as this Dominion is concerned, for the licence fees and royalties which the Government is entitled to collect in no way compensate New Zealand for her administrative privileges over this territory. Moreover the position becomes proportionately worse every year; the financial returns to the whaling companies are increasing at an enormous rate and serve merely to emphasise the magnitude of our lost opportunity. Bearing in mind that the agreement with the Imperial Government in 1923, and the subsequent regulations in 1926 fixed the whaling licence fee at £2OO for every factory ship, and the royalty at 2s 6d a barrel over and above 20,000 barrels of oil, it is more than disconcerting for the authorities to learn that this year the total number of Norwegian whaling companies, and companies managed by Norwegians, operating within the Antarctic Circle will be 23, possessing 30 factory ships, 145 whale-chasers, three shore stations, and four transports. There will also be seven companies not Norwegian, with seven factories, 47 chasers, three shore stations and three transports. MEN FROM NORWAY It is a significant fact, too—and one which will cause much reflection in New Zealand at the present time—that, while there are thousands of people out of work in the Dominion, just on 9,000 men are being brought from Norway to engage in this profitable business of catching whales. The original agreement for whalehunting in the Ross Sea was made with the firm of Konow and Larsen in 1923, when a licence was issued for 21 years. Three years later, however, whaling regulations were passed allowing ships to operate within the territorial waters of the Dependency upon the payment of the set fee of £2OO for every factory ship and a

similar royalty to that paid by the Konow-Larsen combination —2s 6d a barrel over 20.000 barrels. Since that time, however, whaling has grown quite without the bounds of the authorities’ expectations, and each year of operations has registered a record recovery of oil. In the first year, 1923-24, the Government collected something like £2,200 in addition to the licence fee of £2OO, but in 1927-28 the whale oil totalled 124,000 barrels within the licensed area, and returned the Dominion just on £7,000 in royalties, as well as the usual £2OO fee. Last year was another world’s record, and the C. A. Larsen and Sir James Glark Ross, the two ships of the Larsen expedition, carried between them something like 150,000 barrels of oil, valued at about £1,000,000, and giving the States as return in royalties a modest £18,750 or thereabouts. BRITISH COMPETITORS Up to the present time, Norwegian enterprise has been almost the sole operator in the whaling waters, but British capital has shown up very prominently this year, at least two of the companies to operate in the Ross Sea having been either backed by British money or formed entirely under British control. Penalties for non-compliance with the regulations are exceptionally heavy. The owner or master of a vessel engaged in whaling without a licence is liable to a fine of £I,OOO, and for non-compliance with the licence provisions, a licensee is liable to forfeit £IOO a day for the duration of the breach. Altogether, millions of gallons of oil are taken from the Ross Sea every year, the largest Norwegian expedition having carried cargoes averaging from £500,000 to £750,000 in value for several years past. This season at least four expeditions are to operate there. As the licences are issued for 21 years, it is impossible for New Zealand to take effective measures to protect the industry, and if this year’s activities are an indication, there are likely to be very few whales left by the expiry date of the licences. L.J.C.