Southern Venture

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24712, 1 November 1945, Page 4

Southern Venture

The Southern Venturer, trie first launched of two new - whalingfactory ships ordered by British interests from British yards, passed her trials in the North Sea on Sunday, and, as was also reported on Tuesday, immediately sailed for the Antarctic to open the whaling season. The. Southern Venturer will have a loaded .dead-weight capacity of 20,500 tons, and will be able to store 19,500 tons of whale oil in nine separate compartments. Her equipment-is of . the most modern type. Oil will be extracted and refined and whale meat dehydrated in the ship. Her oilstoring capacity exceeds that of the Terji Viken, the largest Britishowned factory' ship in operation before the war. The Southern Venturer is, of course, only one of the ships,-British and Norwegian, which will operate in the Antarctic this season. There will, it is hoped, be good hunting for-all of them. From the time the Pacific became' • a theatre of war the whaling industry virtually ceased. The whalecatchers were converted to warlike uses, and such of the large factory ships as escaped destruction—the Germans claimed to have captured two of the 21 in the British and Norwegian fleets—were required for more urgent purposes. Some authorities expect, accordingly, that in this long close season the number of whales will have largely increased. That is the opinion of the whaler section of the British Chamber of Shipping. It is doubtful, however, whether it is the opinion of those Allied Governments which in February signed a protocol on the international control of whaling. In the 1937-38 and 1938-39 seasons the whale catches were 46,000 and 38,000 respectively, the 1938-39 catch representing 25,000 blue whale units. In the j words of Britain's Fisheries Secretary, those catches were felt to be " rather high in relation to stocks " The Allied Governments concerned in the whaling industry, Mr Dobson added, were fully alive to the urgency of replenishing world stocks of oils and fats as soon as possible; but there was " general " agreement that if the whale is to "be preserved some limit below " the pre-war figure may have to be " imposed ". Certainly, the limit set for the season now about to open reflects that agreement. The catch is restricted to 16,000 blue whale units, or roughly half the average pre-war catch. *As " The Times "' commented: "It will be interesting "to observe the results of the close " season. ... It is to be hoped that "the diminution of the schools " recorded in the returns for 1939-40 ' will prove to have been but tem- " porarj. At the same time, the " virtual extinction of the Green- " land whale, the Pacific grey " whale, and the Biscayan and " southern ' right whales' is a " warning against optimism ".