WHALING FROM AIR

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 35, 10 September 1952, Page 5

WHALING FROM AIR

NEW JOB FOR HELICOPTER Helicopter whaling tests are being made near Lisbon. The whaling industry at the moment works there in this way: a permanent lookout is stationed on the top of a cliff, and when he sees a wnale he calls up the whaler at the bottom of the cliff by radio-telephone. He gives the bearing and the distance of the whale, and the crew take their boat out, harpoon, and then tow the whale mto the factory, which is on shore. That is, of course, if they locate the whale, which is not always certain,. This involves having a crew of twenty always on standby, and the use of expensive whaling craft, and it can be somewhat wasteful of time and energy and material. The helicopter idea is this: it is the helicopter which goes when the lookout gives the alert, and being very mobile and' having- a fine platform of vision, it can never fail — in theory — to some up with the target. It then hovers above the Vvhaie (folloying it if it happens to dive) and from dead and virtually point-blank range it aims and fires a mi ssle, like a harpoon, but unconnected to the helicopter. This missile has an exposive head, "»vhich, it is said, should be immediately tatai, and also an automatic air bottle to inflate the whale, which is then recovered by an ordinary surface vessel and towed vn. The advantages of this scheme are that a whale is seldom lost, and the whaler and its crew are replaced by the helicopter and the recovery ship which, it is argued, are very much cheaper all round. The one snag* at the moment is the perfection of the airborne harpoon and its aiming device, and it i was on this that Mr Fearn, the head ! of Westlands, who make the helicopter involved, made a recent trip to Lisbon. Mr Fearn tells me that once the system has been worked up in Portugal in the off-shore whaling ground, as he is confident it will be, it would be applicable to any whaling expedition, and that helicopters could easily become the chief equipment used."— Charles Gardner, B.B.C. Air Correspondent.