The Doomed Whales

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31153, 1 September 1966, Page 14

The Doomed Whales

Mankind seems set quite firmly on a course which must result soon in the annihilation of the whale. The cause of the extinction of the largest creature that has ever lived on earth will be the activities of the whaling fleets. Machinery exists for the whaling nations to meet and discuss ways of arresting the accelerating drop in the whale populations. These nations do meet —another conference is about to be held in Tokyo—but no effective agreement has yet been reached. The disappearance of whales from the world’s oceans has been forecast in the clearest terms by marine biologists and it has been deplored by individuals who accuse their fellows of indifference to the loss of such an animal species; but no solution has been found. Even the powerful argument of , conservation has not succeeded. The overkilling by the whaling fleets is illustrated by the population figures. Thirty years ago there were something like 200,000 blue whales and the same number of the smaller fin whales in Antarctic waters. Now the fin whales are thought to be down to 35,0Q0 or so, and the blue whales to a few hundred. The blue whale grows to 90 or 100 feet in length, weighs about a ton to the foot, and is worth about £2OOO. For all its size and obvious strength the blue whale is not aggressive and lives entirely on minute shrimp-like plankton, or krill.

Three nations now carry on Antarctic whaling: Japan, Norway, and Russia. Under the national quota agreement which expired last season Japan was allocated 52 per cent of the catch, Norway 28 per cent, and Russia 20 per cent. Last summer the International Whaling Commission agreed that the annual catch should be reduced to 4500 blue-whale units—two fin whales counting as one unit—and that the whaling countries should agree on national quotas within this figure. Now the Japanese have accused the Russians of exceeding their quota. But the fact is that everybody’s quota will have to be reduced, and • drastically, if whaling is to continue at all. Students of the whaling industry say that two or three thousand a year would be a realistic figure. Japan has increased its quota share in recent years to the present dominant level by taking over two of the last remaining fleets in world whaling—those of Britain and the Netherlands. Both countries found that their share of the catch would have been quite inadequate to make whaling economic. The present situation is causing the Norwegians much concern: it seems probable that the only two whaling nations left will shortly be Russia and Japan. The drop in the whale catch has naturally meant a sharp decline in the number of barrels of whale oil coming on to world markets, and prices have consequently soared. The price of whale -oil in London rose from £36 10s a ton in 1962 to £9O a ton last season. After the war, production of whale oil soon built up to an average of 2.3 million barrels a year; it remained fairly steady at this level until the drop began in the 1961-62 season.

Outside the Antarctic, the sperm whale is more plentiful but less profitable. The highly-favoured Antarctic whales are sought mainly for their oil; but Japan’s interest in whaling is reinforced by the booming domestic demand for whalemeat in all forms from steaks to sausages. Japan even finds it necessary to import whalemeat to keep up supplies. Whether demand is for meat or oil, the time may have arrived to ask if large-scale whaling ought still to be carried on at all. Whale oil was once of considerable importance to man: but it is to be questioned now whether whale oil, as a source of human food, cannot be replaced by vegetable oils such as those from groundnuts and coconuts. Mineral oils have surely replaced whale oil as an illuminant; substitutes for whalemeat can be found. There is much to be said for suspending all whaling for a few years—partly to find out what difficulties would arise, partly to let the whale population increase again the risk of extinction. $