HUNT FOR WHALES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 105, 6 May 1929, Page 9

HUNT FOR WHALES.

WINTER SEASON APPROACHES STEAMER'S ANNUAL REFIT. That old-fashioned looking gun that took toll of 55 whales last season, was seen in Auckland this morning, when the little whaling steamer Hananui 11. steamed in for overhaul. Mounted on the bow, it catches the eye and suggests even to the landsman that the steamer is not a unit of the coastal tr New g Zealand's well-known whaling waters, out from Russell, not far from the localities where record makos and swordfish have been landed, are a fruitful source to those engaged m the cal inc industry, and the common humpback whale gives surprisingly good sport when pursued by harpoon and hawser He is about the same size as the Arctic ric/ht whale, but has the skin of the throat plaited, a low hump-back dorsa fin and very long four-fingered pectoral limbs. His head is of moderate size, and his baleen plates short and broad. Twice a-year the. Hananui 11. goes out from Russell in Q"est of whales the first season being from June to about the middle of August, and the second from October to September. In the winter season the whales are at their best for oil production, and some well fattened specimens are caught. Between the two seasons the whales are in the warmer waters of the sub-equatorial zone for breeding, and they return towards the Antarctic shortly before commence her next whaling exeur " sion the Hananui 11. will leave Auckland about the middle of the month, and will remain in the north for the summer seasot. She will not return to Auckland until Me ne"*fe