Protection for Whales

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1056, 21 August 1930, Page 8

Protection for Whales

INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT SOUGHT THE rapid growth in the rate of destruction of whales in the Antarctic, owing to the introduction of modern methods and the. wider spread of operations, is looked on with anxiety by-the Economic Committee of the League of Nations, which proposes a world-wide convention to protect the industry against extinction. It is hoped to conserve the supplies ot whales which, at the present progress, will follow their Arctic brothers into extinction within very few years.

The New Zealand Government has been pressing for some time for an international agreement regarding whaling in her Ross Sea possessions, and it is expected that the Norwegian Government will shortly enter into some agreement even if the League’s negotiations fail to bear fruit. In the meantime hundreds of pounds worth of whale oil is going away from the Dominion, with a gross royalty revenue to her of little more than £13,000 annually.

During the 1927-2 S season 5,500 whales were killed off the South Shetland Islands alone. The yield in oil was 66,000 tons. During the past season the fleet in the Antarctic was larger than ever before, consisting of more than 200 vessels in all, with crews and working staffs totalling upward of 7,000 men. They are chiefly Norwegians, even the few British ships operating finding it necessary to engage these men for the strenuous work. The three British companies and one from the Argentine operated from laud stations with a further seven floating factories, three transport vessels and 47 catchers.

It will be seen that the industry has assumed gigantic proportions little short of that which depleted the northern polar waters some years ago. Millions of gallons of oil are taken from the Antarctic every year, the largest Norwegian expedition having carried cargoes averaging from £500,060 to £750,000 in value for several seasons past.

The present indiscriminate killing cannot continue for long and it is to conserve the supplies that the League of Nations has taken the question in hand. The problem is such a large and important one that it can be dealt with only on an international scale. The urgency and importance of the question was put forward by the Governments represented at the world Economic Conference summoned by the League in May, 1927. Since then the Economic Organisation has been studying the problem, and as a result a committee of experts met in Berlin in April to frame a draft convention for the consideration of Governments, which is intended to establish the

necessary international protection for whales. . The Economic Committee in June requested the Council to obtain the views of Governments on this draft convention. In the light of these views and of the comments upon them of a committee of experts, a future session will decide whether a special conference should be summoned to convert the draft into a convention open to signature, or whether a protocol should be opened during a session of the Assembly for signature by any States wishing to become parties. The convention is to operate over “all the waters of the world, including both the high seas and the territorial and national waters/* The contracting parties are to require licences from all whalers of their nationality and not to admit any whaler within their territorial waters that does not possess a recognised licence. The convention is to apply only to so-called whalebone whales, that is, whales that carry the sort of grating or “strainer** in their mouths known as whalebone, which when split up into suitable lengths is a useful commercial commodity. It prohibits the taking or killing of right whales, including North Cape whales, Greenland whales. South right whales, Pacific right whales and Southern Pigmy whales. Right whales, which are relatively slow and easy to catch, possess the most valuable and abundant oil and are therefore more in danger of extinction than other species. The Japanese expert put on record his opinion that the North Pacific should be excluded from this prohibition.

The taking or killing of calves or suckling whales, immature whales and female whales which are accompanied by calves or suckling whales is also prohibited. There are a number of provisions for ensuring that there shall be no wastage when a whale is killed, for making the contracts of gunners and crews of whaling boats depend more upon the size, species, value and yield of oil of the whales taken than merelv upon their number, for ensuring the enforcement of the licence system and the obtaining of adequate statistics about the number, size, and sex of whales taken during the season.