New Chaser To Hunt For Sperm Whales

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30036, 22 January 1963, Page 12

New Chaser To Hunt For Sperm Whales

(New Zealand Press AnocWfon)

BLENHEIM, January 21. The Tory Channel whaling party expects to begin hunting for sperm whales off the east coast of New Zealand and around Cook Strait early in March.

Operations will be carried out from a 135-ton steam chaser which the company has purchased from a Brisbane firm, Whale Products, Ltd. This vessel will set out this week to cross the Tasman with an Australian crew.

A sharp decline in the population of the humpback species of whale has compelled the whaling party to turn its attention to sperms.

A principal of the company, Mr G. T. Perano, has been in Australia studying the sperm whale industry and other members of the Perano family have been engaged in aerial surveys of the area off the New Zealand east coast between Castle Point and Kaikoura to establish the number of sperm whales there.

It has now been decided to make a start on sperm whales, the search for which will entail long trips out to sea. Not a great deal is known locally about the migratory habits of the sperm, which lives on squid and feeds at depths of 1000 fathoms (60,000 ft and more. Hunting sperm whales will mean manning the chaser for 24 hours a day, with the ideal arrangement being to spend daylight hours in killing and the nights in towing the whales back to the factory for processing, and returning to the hunting grounds in readiness for the next day’s operations. For this reason the chaser will have to carry a crew of between 12 and 16. Its master will be the holder of a home trade certificate, and its engineer will hold a steam ticket.

The fuel consumption of the chaser is about 16 tons of fuel oil a day.

The 150 ft chaser has a 27ft beam and a draught of 18ft Its speed is approximately 15 miles an hour. It was built in Norway for operations in the Antarctic and after a tour of duty there was purchased by the Australian firm, which used her around the Brisbane coast

whales until 10 are killed, when it will set off for the factory in Tory Channel with the catch in tow. On board the chaser now on its way to New Zealand are Messrs Charlie Perano, master of the whaling mother ship, Tuatea, and his son, Mr Allan Perano. The chaser, at present named s.s. Loma, will enter Tory' Channel on its way to Picton. It will later go to Wellington to be surveyed to comply with -New Zealand regulations. There is no closed season for hunting sperms, and the Peranos expect to be out all the year. Mr Perano said they had no intention of disposing of the four speedy chasers and the mother ship, Tuatea, used in hunting humpbacks. They intend to take any whales that come along, whether they are humpbacks or sperms.

Mounted at the bow is a 90 millimetre gun which fires a 1801 b harpoon. The harpoon alone is heavier than the gun used on the fast chasers against humpbacks in Cook Strait. The harpoons fired from those guns weigh only 141 b. Change In Method Mr Perano said today that the whole method of whaling would change with the hunt for the new species. Whereas the fast speedy chasers used to dash in and out again at great acceleration after the humpbacks as they surfaced at intervals of 10 minutes or so, the big steam chaser would stand off and fire its gun at long range. The sperm whales could submerge for up to half an hour before surfacing for air. This meant that the chaser’s crew would have to keep a close watch for the whale to surface so the gunner could get on to it before it submerged again. It is expected that the chaser will operate among the