"PASS THE WHALE"

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 9, 11 January 1929, Page 7

"PASS THE WHALE"

■>: - EATING SEA BEEF Commander Byrd's references iii recent dispatches to-the laying in of a stock cf whale beef for the use of the expedition, and his mention of the. jocular "paßs the whale" which was bandied round at their meal tables, have been treated rather as a 1 little bit of humorous reading by most people. And this notwithstanding tho gallant | explorer's : succe'eding statements reI garding" the delicacy, and: toothsomeness of the meat. I Mr. David G. Stead, writing :in I tho .".Sydney. Morning Herald," says .that he is in a position to testify per-, sonally as to ' the', excellent qualities' possessed by whale jneat, and when one goes into the matter there 1 is no earthly reason why the meat should not be good. Whales, of course, although living in a. watery environment, are not fishes, but are warm-blooded mammals. The meat is red and very much the colour and consistency, of .■ large beef. ..This moat is not oily, as one perhaps' naturally imagines, the oil being separately contained in the great •masses of blubber and connective tissue underlying the skin. What is looked upon commercially as the edible, beef for human consumption is that taken from the vast muscles lying along each side .of the. massive. tail.'

:The best meat is.-obtained from the •'tinner/of .black .-finback whale, but that. ■.of the humpback is nearly as good, while the beef of the blue whale is not far below 1 in edible quality. : Now these are the great commercial whales which are most abundant, and, to the iwriter, at least, it appears most'extra-, 'ordinary that we have gone so long without making the fullest use of'these giant ...sea.vdenizens.■•.■..'Here.: mighty wealth, 'has -, passed and re-passed our doors' for year after year, and,, when not right at hand, has lain.in'"southern seas .within,a.stone's'throw,'almost, of us. Thousands of tons of oil, of bones and meat, of skins, whalebone, and of other products have been contemptuously cast aside, while our. gallant friends the Norwegians have journeyed for many thousands of miles to come to our seas to get the* valuable and necessary commodities which geo-, graphically,'at least, are ours.: ■. But.to return to our muttons —vi this case beef.' In America an increasing quality of whale ,beef is being sold for human food, largely in the 'canned state. -■■-In this case the meat is one of "the secondary products. In Japan it is a primary one. In the United/States as much as five tons of beef is.obtained from one small sei whale, a species which is very common on the coasts of the Tasman Sea. About eight tons is obtained from a moderate sized firmer. This whale meat has been found to be in a high degree suitable for human consumption, apart altogether from its attractive appearance; and taste, and modern students of nutrition have ascertained (what oia hands had discovered in actual practice) "that'the digestibility of whale protein-is similar to beef protein, and is in a high degree available for tissue repair in the human organism. '.' ■ . •, . Incidentally it may be mentioned that meat meal made from almost any part of the flesh of the whale has been ascertained to be an excellent poultry and cattle meal, giving great increases in weight without imparting any peculiar flavour, for the simple reason, of course, that there is no peculiar flavour about .this.beef j' ■ .. In my own personal experience with whale beef as served on the table, 1 was not told as. to the origin of the dish—a-great savoury platter of stew, I with potato and suitably garnished..My host waited for my comments, if any, before telling me. I remarked on the excellence of the' beef (without one thought as to the possibilities), and its tenderness, and was most surprised when I found that it came from ithe tail of a finback whale. ; Farther gustatory acquaintances with this meat but served to add to the high 1 opinion previously formed. „ When we do at last wake up to the possibilities of whaling in the Tasman Sea, not one pound of",■this valuable meat should be lost to human consumption, but • should be cut into suitable strips and frozen', and so used as required in homes and food establishments of our. towns and cities. • It may be mentioned that whale meat % brings on the average about one shilling per pound in San Francisco. \