THE BLUE WHALE

Evening Star, Issue 21130, 16 June 1932, Page 12

THE BLUE WHALE

A RECORD OF WHOLESALE SLAUGHTER The heyday of tlie Nordcaper, bowhead, and sperm whales lias long since departed. To the modern whaler the boast of 44 a dead whale or a stove boat ” has no meaning. The scenes so vigorously depicted by Herman Melville and. Frank Sullen have passed away, never to return. With the disappearance of the three species of whale mentioned above, whaling became, toward the end of the nineteenth century’, a profitless adventure on account of the scarcity of the booty. The invention about 1860, by a Norwegian whaler—Sven Foyn—of a harpoon gun resuscitated whaling with results that have gradually grown, until during the last few years the slaughter of a wild creature has taken place which has no parallel since the disappearance of the American passenger pigeon. The harpoon gun did not come into general use until 1880 or later. The modern harpoon is shot from a gun fixed in the bows of a speciallybuilt steamer about 100 ft long—the whale chaser. The harpoon contains a qharge or detonator which only explodes after the whale is hit, this liberating three enormous prongs by which the whale is firmly secured. To this formidable weapon, which has reduced the original whale hunt from a sport to a butchery, are added the refinements of aeroplanes for spotting purposes, wireless telegraphy’, and electric discharges through the warp fastened to the harpoon. The finners or rorquals arc a group of whales of world-wide distribution. There are at least four well-marked species—the blue whale, and the common finner, the sei whale, and the lesser rorqual—all of which are met lyith in British seas and are occasionally stranded on our coasts. These finners are distinguished from the right or Hue whale by the possession of a doisal fin and by the plicatica or folds of the skin of the throat; hence the name of “ rorqual,” a Norwegian term meaning a whale with pleats or folds in the skin. Three of the species of finner arc attacked by modern whalers. The lesser rorqual is fortunate, as its sine—it averages 32ft in length—is too small to imike it worth killing and boiling down. Many points in natural history, distribution, and slaughter are common to the other three finners, but we may select the blue whale as the type since it is the largest creature that lives, or has ever lived, on this globe. Fven the gigantic fossil saurians are pygmies compared to the blue whale. Ihere aio well authenticated measurements ot blue whale exceeding 100 ft in length. Specimens between 80ft and 90ft long are not uncommon. At least four examples have been stranded on the Scottish coasts in recent years, two after being harpooned. In one instance the bar* poon bore Japanese inscriptions; tins was in the largest of the four whales, S‘?ft Ion", which was stranded on the Island of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides. Statistical evidence as to the size and condition of finners, including the blue whale has accumulated during the last few vears both from the Antarctic regions, which are now the cliiet hunting ground for the blue whale, and

the sub-Arctic seas. Large numbers of individuals of both sexes have been measured, and the results throw a lurid light on the conditions of this modern massacre. Neither age nor sex nor pregnant mother nor suckling babe is spared—if, indeed, the term suckling babe is appropriate to a whale calf over 40ft long. The chief pairing season is when the blue whales are in subtropical waters off the African coast, where they are still chased by whalers working from land stations at Saldanha Bay and elsewhere. With regard to the slaughter. In the early days the chasers were based on laud stations to which the dead whale was towed to be flensed. But of late years reliance has been made more and more on floating factories on which the whole operations of cutting up and boiling down can be performed. In fact, in the most modern form of floating factory the whale can be hoisted bodily on board up a stern slipway. Attempts were first made in 1904 to utilise a small oil-burning apparatus on a steamer. In 1904 such a steamer operated at Spitzbergen; her capacity w'as 5,000 barrels. Larger and larger vessels were adapted for pelagic whaling, rv Inch had obvious advantages over a shore station. Such vessels as the Opawa, 9,000 tons, of New Zealand Line, were adapted for floating factories. The value of the whale products in the South Georgia area alone rose from £251,077 in 1909 to £5,750,000 in 1925. Since then the industry has developed by leaps and bounds. The dividends paid by the three leading Norwegian companies during the four years ending 1928 averaged 45, 231, and 57i per cent. Eventually large steamers were specially built to act as whaling factories, and provision was made for hauling the carcase of the whale on board. The Kasmos 11., built at Belfast, is 000 ft long, with a beam of 77ft, and a moulded depth of 53ft. Her daily capacity is 2,500 barrels, and her total cargo 155,000 tons; and this vessel is only one of many. She is accompanied by ’ seven killers (whale chasers) to supply the daily quota of victims. She deals in two days with more than the floating factories of 1904 were capable of carrying away after a season’s work. In Ilf]9-20 whales numbering 11,3G9 were killed at whaling stations all over the world; in 1929-30" and 1930-31 the number exceeded 30,000 per annum; not all of them blue whales. In the 1930-31 season forty-three floating factories. six laud stations, 232 whale chasers, and ten transport vessels, manned by about 11,000 Norwegians, won engaged in the Antarctic. During the present season, 1931-32, there is no whaling; a glut of oil from the previous season remains unsold. This question of excessive slaughter of whales has been considered by the League of Nations, who addressed a questionaire on the subject to the Governments adhering to the League. Of the twentyeight Governments which replied twenty-one gave affirmative or favourable answers The most encouraging replies were received from the French, Danish, and Rumanian Governments. Five replies wore unfavourable or opposed to the conclusions. At the head of the five stands the British Empire.