THE WHALE FLEET

Evening Star, Issue 23175, 26 January 1939, Page 22

THE WHALE FLEET

STRENGTH THIS YEAR RISE OF THE JAPANESE Armed with the most modern and efficient devices for wholesale slaughter, over 30 fleets from Britain, .Norway, Germany, Japan, and the United States will this summer attack the whale in the Antarctic, says a writer in the ‘ Sydney Morning Herald.’ It is estimated that during the season each fleet will kill 1,500 whales, so that in all about 45,000 whales will probably fali to the gunners during the annual four months’ onslaught. During the past two or three weeks, Fremantle has scon an impressive display of Japanese determination to obtain a strong footing in the whaling industry before becoming a’ party to the international whaling agreement. This agreement, to which most other whaling nations are parties, places certain limitations on the whaling operations with a view to preventing indiscriminate killing. It was officially stated in Tokio that Japan did not take part in the 1937 whaling conference in London solely because her whaling industry was still in its infancy, and was unable adequately to prepare for participation. An unofficial explanation said that Japan would hot join in an international agreement for the regulation of whaling until her fleet approximated the strength of the Norwegian and British whaling fleets. Following the dramatic enlargement of her fleet in the last two or three years, however, it is suggested that Japan will probably he ready to become a party to the agreement next year. JAPANESE PREPARATION. Japan’s rise to prominence in the Antarctic whaling industry reads like a romance. The expenditure of millions of pounds on well-equipped, modern; vessels is an indication of her belief? that whaling will he a paying proposi-i tion for some years, despite the almost inevitable shrinkage in the number of whales to ho caught. In 1934 Japan entered the whaling industry in the Antarctic with the factory ship Tonan Marn and five chasers. The vessel was built in 1906 under the name of Opawa for the trade to New Zealand, in which a modern motorship now hears the same name. The old Opawa was sold to Norwegian owners, who converted her into a factory ship for pelagic whaling and renamed her Antarctic. Sold to the Japanese, she first went to the Antarctic under the name of Antarctic Marn. receiving the name Tonan Marn in 19.‘!5. The first voyage was in many respects experimental, and the Japanese received considerable assistance from Norwegian gunners, who still go with the fleets. Next vear the ship again went south with five chasers, and returned with 7.400 tons of oil from 609 whales. In 1906, Japan sent to the Antarctic the first whaling vessels built in Jaoan. Thev were the fine factory ship Nisshin Marn, built on tanker lines, capable of carrying 21.000 tons of oil and eight chasers. Tt, is understood that the owners, the Great Ocean Whalin'* Gompanv, of Tokio, paid about £7.000 for the hlue-nrints of one of the latest European faetorv ships, and had the vessel built at Kobe at a cost of about £500.000. On her huge deck of about 100 yards in length hy the whole beaut of the ship, three of the largest whales can he treated simultaneously and disposed of in about a quarter of an hour. Blubber and hones are sent to the press boilers on the deck below, from where the oil Is sent to the purifier and eventually into the storage tanks, A NEW FLEET. With whale oil worth £2l per ton, the two Japanese fleets did exceptionally well in 1936. The Tonan Marn won 10,864 tons of oil, and the Nisshin Marn, 15,500 tons, making the total catch worth over £550,01)0. It was not, therefore, surprising that in 1937 new fleets were sent to the Antarctic. The Union Fishing Company, owners of the Tonan Marn, sent a second fleet headed by the Tonan Maru No. 2, which followed mit the latest trends in design, and bad a rapacity of well over 20.000 tons; and the Great Ocean Whaling Company sent the Nisshin Marn No. 2, a sister to its first factory ship. Each of these was attended hy eight chasers, and all the vessels were built in Japan. Despite a fall in the price of whale oil to about £l2 per ton, the four Japanese fleets caught enough whales to return a profit to their companies, ami this season yet another two new fleets are being sent to the Antarctic. One is headed by the Tonan Maru No. 3. and the others by the Kyokuyo Maru, owned by a new company, the Kyokuyo Whaling Company. Owing to the world-wide shortage of steel, the prices of shipbuilding have increased considerably since the construction of the first Nisshin Maru. and it is estimated that the new factory shins this year have cost approximately £900,000. As V’cy are attended hy eight or nine cl aser=. each costing something like £30.000. tlm total value of Japan’s Antarctic whaling fleet of six factory shins and nearly 50 chasers can be seen to be very considerable. THIS SEASON’S FLEET. The first fleet to pass through Fremantle this season for the Antarctic was that headed hy the Nisshin Marn No. 1, which had nine chasers. She left about the middle of October for the whaling grounds, about 10 days’ steaming south-west of this pvt. She was followed after n few days by the Tonan Marn No. 1. which had been held up at Fremantle for minor hull repairs, and live chasers; then came the Nisshin Main No. 2 anil nine chasers, the Tonan Mam No. 3 and eight chasers, the Kvoknyo Maru and nine chasers, and the Tonan Marn No. 2 and eight chasers. Japan, therefore, will operate six factory shins and 48 chasers, carrying about 2,650 men, in the Antarctic this season.

As in recent years, part of the oil non in the Antarctic will he sent to Knrope by tankers which will meet the factory ships during the season and transfer oil from them. It is expected, however, that compared with previous years there will lie p’-eater concentration on hv-products. German scientists, it is learned. have discovered a method of makin" synthetic wool from whale blubber, hut it is not , expected that the Japanese will work on this. They wi l ! keep a large amount of whale hhles, having found a way of treating th“in to make leather. One of the officers said that until the present tlm bides had not, been able to be made sufficiently touch for this purpose hut that a sa + 'sfaetory treatment had been oeplyed. t'nrt of the back of tbe whale affords red meat that is noupsbbmr a n, l '"‘■‘v. and a largo amount of tins will be bent.

T*nr : ”" (|m coniine “nwiii two transports from Jana-i \ri|l on to (be Antarctic ti. ta be bides an J meat to J.an"a, end more wiM be carried borne bv the factory ships when they return.