WHALES DIE YOUNG

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 20 June 1932, Page 2

WHALES DIE YOUNG

AVERAGE AGE ABOUT 20 YEARS

WHAT DISCOVERY 11. HAS FOUND

Those who have followed the fortunes of Captain Ahad iii his search for Moby Dick, the great white whale, will learn with regret that, in spite of Herman Melville’s story and Captain Ahab’s belief that his quarry was of almost incalculable age, whales do not. in fact, live very long. For the dispelling of the age. long illusion that whales often live for hundreds of years, Mr Dilwyn John and his staff of scientists on board the Royal research-ship Discovery 11. are responsible (states the Melbourne “Argus”). The Discovery 11. is now lying at Prince’s Pier, Port Melbourne, after having made several of a series of “V----course” cruises to the''edge of the Antarctic ice and back, which will eventu. ally take her completely around the Antarctic continent. All the time the Discovery 11. has been at sea—she left London in October, 1931, and has called at Cape Town and Fremantle—soundings have been taken by means of the echo sounding apparatus every half hour and careful records have been kept. Even more diligent researches have been made into the nature, habitat, and other char

acteristics of the small ocean creatures upon which the whales feed, and of the smaller creatures upon which the whales' food subsists, and so “ad infinitum.” Mr John i§ not disappointed because whales do not live so very long. He seems to have suspected something of the sort. He and his assistants are convinced now that the average life of a whale is only about 20 or 25 years, though the more hardy and healthy may live to be 30. In describing the object of the investigations upon which the Discovery 11. is engaged, Mr John mentioned that- in 1929-30 there were 30 whale factories afloat in Antarctic waters. As each factory—by which is meant a large whaling vessel fitted with all the apparatus needed for flenching and boiling down whales—“mothered" several small, fast craft used for hunting the whales, the unfortunate beasts had a difficult time. Nearly all these whalehunting expeditions were manned by Norwegians, though some were financed with British capital. The indiscriminate slaughter has led to a serious diminution in the number of whales in the Antarctic seas, and an unofficial holiday is« being observed, only three factory ships working in the south this year. The object of the Discovery 11. is, by means of a series of circum-Polar voyages, to assess the number of whales that are left, so that, by international arrangement, some control may be exercised over the activities of whalers. A reasonably accurate estimate can be formed by a careful and methodical survey over a number of years of the places' where the whales’ food abounds, how it moves about and why, and where. The researches now in progress are on a scale never before attempted. This is the eighth year in which observations have been made.