SAVING THE WHALE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 158, 6 July 1935, Page 8 (Supplement)

SAVING THE WHALE.

LONGER CLOSED SEASON. OTHERWISE EXTINCTION. SLAUGHTER OF MINIATURE MAMMALS. The whale has beco;ne a creature of international concern. Unless the depredations of the factory ships are curtailed he will soon be as extinct as the dodo. Twenty per cent of .the whiles harpooned are lost. Moreover, the size of those that are captured is steadily dwindling. In 1920 and 1927 it is said that 72.8 per cent of the carcases dragged on board to be cut up and tried out on factory ships were more than 65ft long, but in 1931 and 1932 only 27.4 per cent reached this. size. Why this should be so follows from the life history of the whale. A blue cow breeds only once every two or three years. Her new-born offspring is about 25ft long and weighs about a ton. Seven months later it is able to shift for itself. By this time its length has doubled and its weight has increased tenfold. This means that each day its length lias increased by about 20in, and its weight by about 2201b. The rate of growth diminishes with increasing age, so that it takes about ten years for a wliale to attain, full size. Kills Now Immature. A mathematical consideration of these facts explains why it is that the whales now caught should be smaller than of yore. The harpooner kills whales faster than they can breed, with the result that the kills must consist largely of the immature. As a result there is a growing sentiment for a closed season which is to begin on December 1, and to end on April 1. ' Even this is inadequate. Matings of fin and blue whales occur in Juno and July in tropical waters. But births take place in the cold seas of the north and south. ' As a result, cows bearing embryos are ruthlessly slaughtered. The remedy seems to be some international agreement which would establish a much longer closed season to give embryos a chance to come into the world, and to forbid the killing of whales smaller than a stipulated size. Electrocution Methods. The case of the whale becomes all .the more serious because the floating factories are turning to electrical methods of killing. Electrocution, proposed in 1880. and revived by Professor Birkeland iu 1902, was not a success at first. Professor Weber, of Oslo then came forward with practical proposals. A hundred volts are enough. What the amperage may be this commentator doesn't know. The electrical method may be humane, but if it is developed much further, which seems likely; the days of the whale are numbered, unless the owners of the factory ships realise that they are ruining their own industry.