THE WHALE FLEET

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 January 1939, Page 8

THE WHALE FLEET

RISE OP THE JAPANESE. i Armed with the most modern and efficient devices for wholesale slnughtei. over 30 fleets from Britain, Norway, Germany, Japan, and Ihe t'nited States will, this summer attack the whale in the Antarctic, says a writer in (he “Sydney Morning; Herald." it is estimated that during the season each i'leef will kill 1500 whales, so that in all about 45,000 whales will probably fall to the gunners during tho annual four months’ onslaught. During the past, two or three weeks, Ere-mantle has seen an impressive display of Japanese determination to obtain a, strong footing in the Antarctic whaling industry before becoming a party to tho 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 Io prepare for participation. An official explanation said that Japan would not 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 be ready to become a party to (he agreement next year.

Japan’s rise to prominence in the Antarctic whaling industry reads like a romance. Tho expenditure of millions of pounds on well-equipped, modern vessels is an indication of her belief that whaling will be a paying proposition for some years, despite tiie almost inevitable shrinkage in the number of whales to be caught.

In 1934 Japan entered the whaling industry in the Antarctic with the factory ship Tonan Maru 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 bears 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 Maru, receiving the name Tonan Maru in 1935. The first voyage was in many respects experimental, and the Japanese received considerable assistance from Norwegian gunners, who still go with the fleets. Next year the ship again went south with five chasers, and returned with 7400 tons of oil from 639 whales. In 1936, Japan sent to the Antarctic the first whaling vesels built in Japan. They were the fine factory ship Nisshin Maru, built on (anker lines, capable of carrying 21,000 tons of, oil, and eight chasers. It is understood that, the owners, the Great Ocean Whaling Company, of Tokio, paid about £7OOO for the blue-prints of one of the latest European factory 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 by the whole beam of the ship, three of the largest whales can be treated simultaneously and disposed of in about a quarter of an hour. Blubber and bones are sent to the press boilers on the deck below, from where the oil is sent to the purifer 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 Maru won. 10.864 tons of oil, and the Nisshin Maru. 15,500 tons, making the total catch worth over £550,000. It was nor, therefore, suprising that in 1937 new fleets were sent to the Antarctic. Tin?. Union Fishing Company, owners of the Tonan Maru, sent, a second fleet headed by the Tonan Maru No. 2, which followed out the latest trends in design, and had a capacity of well over 20,000 tons; and the Great Ocean Whaling Company sent the Nisshin Maru No. 2, a sister to its first faetorv ship. Each of these was attended by 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, and this season yet another two new fleets are being- sent to the Antarctic. One is headed by the Tonan Mani 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 ships this year have cost approximately £900,000 As they are attended by eight or nine chasers, each costing something like £30,000, the total value of Japan’s Antarctic whaling fleet of six factory ships and nearly 50 chasers can be seen to be very considerable. The first fleet, to pass through Fremantle this season for the Antarctic was that headed by the Nisshin Maru No. 1, which had nine chasers. She left about the middle of October tor the whaling grounds, about ten days’ steaming south-west of this port. She was followed after a few days by the Tonan Maru No. 1, which had been held up at Fremantle for minor hull repairs, and five chasers; then came the Nisshin Maru No. 2 and nine chasers, the Tonan Maru No. 3 and eight chasers, the Kyokuyo Maru and nine chasers, and the Tonan Maru No. 2 and eight chasers. Japan therefore will operate six factory ships and 48 chasers, carrying about 2650 men, in the Antarctic this season. As in recent, years, part of the oil won in the Antarctic will be sent to Europe by tankers which will meet the factory ships during the season and transfer oil from them. Il is expected however, that compared with previous years, there will be greater concentration on by-product".. Gorman scientists, it is teat-nod, have discovered a method of making synthetic wool from whale blubber, but it is tint expected that the Japanese will work on this. Thev will keep a. large amount of' whale hides, having found a way of treating them to make leather. One of the officers said that until the present (lie hides had not been able io be imide suffieently tough for this purpose, bit; that. a satisfactory treatment had been evolved. Part of the back of the whale affords rod meal that is . nourishing' and tasty, and a largo amount of this will be kept.

During the coming season two transports from Japan will go to the Antarctic to take hides and meat to Japan, and more will ho carried home by the factory ship? when they return.