WHALING PLANS

Grey River Argus, 14 December 1938, Page 10

WHALING PLANS

JAPANESE AND ANTARCTIC. Armed with the most modern and efficient devices for wholesale slaughter, over 30 fleets from Britain, Norway, Germany, Japan and the United States will, tiffs summer, attack the whale In the Antarctic. It is estimated that during the season each fleet will kpl 1500 whales, so trial in all about 54,000 whales will proouoly fall to the gunners during ihe annual four months’ onslaught. Recently there has been ah impressive display of Japanese determination to obtain a strong footing in the Antarctic whaling industry before becoming a party to the international whaling This agreement, to which most, other whaling nations are parties, places certain .limitations on the whaling operations with a view to preventing indiscriminate killing. Lt was officially stated in Tokyo that. Japan did not tak* parr

1937 whaling conferense in London because nei- whaling industry a as still in its infancy, and was unable adequately to prepare for participation. An unofficial 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 the agreement next year. Japan’s rise to prominence in the Antarctic whaling industry reads like a romance. The expenditure of millions of pounds on well-equip-ped, modern vessels Is an Indication

of her belief that whaling will be a paying proposition for some years despite the almost inevitable shrinkage in the number ot whalesf to bo caught. In 1934 Japan entered the whaling industry in the Antarctic with "v factory ship Tonan Maru and five chacers The vessel was built 1906 under the name of Opawa for the trade to New Zealand, in which a modern motorship now bears the same name. The old Opawn sold to Norwegian owners, who converted her Into a factory shin 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 of Tonan Maru In 1935. .

The first voyage was in many r* spects experimental, and the Jnban*se recieved considerable assistance from Norwegian gunners, who slil’ go with the fleets. Next :n--ship again' went south with five chasers, and returned with 7,400 tons of oil from 639 whales. In 193 C Japan sent to the Antarctic the first whaling vessels built In Janan Th-< were the fine factory ship Nisshin Maru, built on tanker lines, capable nf carrying 21,000 tons of oil, and eight chasers. Ft is understood that her owners the Great Ocean Whaling Companv of Tokyo, paid about £7,000 fo»- th*’ blue prints of on* of the latesl Euronean factory ships, and had the vessel built at Kobe at a cost ot about £500.000. On her h”ge deck of about 100 vards in lengtn bv th* whole beam of the ship, three of the largest whales can b* treated slmuL tanequslv and disnosed of in about a quarter of an hour. Blubber and hones are sent to the press boilers on the deck below,, from where th' l nil is sent to th* ourifier and eventually into the storage tanks. ; With whale oil worth about £2l ner tnn. <he twn Japanese fleets d’d exceptionally well in 1936. Th* Tonan Ma r n won 10,864 tons of oil and the Nisshin Maru 15,550 tons, mnkirw- the total catch wor<h over £550,000. Tt. was not. thorpffw

surnrisinv that in 1937 now fleets were sent to the Antarctic. The Union Fishing Company, owners of the Tonan Maru. sent a second fleet headed bv th* Tonan Maru No. 2, which followed out th* latest trend’ in (lesion, and had a canac’tv of weff nve.r 20.000 tons: and the Great Ocean Whaling Companw sent the Nisshin Maru No. 2, a sister to its first factorv shin. Each of these was attended bv eight chasers, and all the vessel wpfp b«fflt- in .Tanan, Despite a fall hi the price of whale nil tn about Fl2 per ’ ton, the four Japanese fleets caught enough whal*c to return a profit to their companies and this season v*t another two fleets wo bein*- snnf <n I he. Antarctic, Ono is headed bv the Tonan Maru No. 3 and th* others bv the Kyokuyo Maru. owned by a new companw, 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 £90*0,000. 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’ 50 chasers can be seen to be very considerable. The first fleet to the Antarctic this season was that headed by the Nisshin Maru No. 1, which had nine chasers. She left about the middle of October for the whaling grounds, about 10 days’ steaming south-west of Freemantle. She was followed after a few days by the Tonan Maru No. 1, which had been held up at Freemantle 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 2 650 men. in the Antarctic this seaeon. 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. It Is expected, however, that compared with previous .years there will he greater concentration on by-products German scientists, it is learned, have discovered n method of making syn-th-tic wool from whale blubber, but it k not expected that the Japanese will work on this.

They 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 (be present the hides had not been able to be made sufficiently tough for this purpose, but that a satisfactory treatment had been evolved. Par f of the back of the whale affords fed meat that is nourishing and tastv, and large amounts of this will be kept.. >, , . During the corning irason two transports from Japan will go to the Antarctic to take , hides and meat to Japan, and more will be carried home by the factory ships whon they return,.