RESPITE FOR WHALES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20890, 4 June 1931, Page 5

RESPITE FOR WHALES.

DECISION IN NORWAY. OVER-PRODUCTION OF OIL. In order to prevent the over-production of whalo oil most of the Norwegian whalehunting companies have decided not to hunt during the coming season. This decision means that ships and equipment to the value of £10,000,000 will be lying idle for a year and that 11,000 men will be thrown out of work. The decision, says the Oslo correspondent of the Observer, London, has been well received in Norway. During the past few months it has become clear that the world's market for oil was depressed be cause of over-production: the shares of some of the whale-bunting companies were quoted at prices which gave no idea of their real value. When the first rumours of a limitation of the hunting began to circulate, the shares at once began to recover. Whale-hunting has become a very important industry in Norway. In tho early days the hunting was conducted from a station ashore, but the method now is to send out ships which do not put into harbour during a cruise, except to take new bunkers and provisions. These ships, which might be described as floating factories, are accompanied by a flotilla of smaller steamers. The men hunt the whales in the smaller boats, which are also used to tow the. bodies to the floating "factory," where the oil is stored in tanks. When this method first came into use many people thought it would lead to a great reduction of the whale stock. But there is little proof that this lias happened. The new method has, of course, led to a far greater output of oil and when the results of the first expedition became known people flocked to buy shares in tho existing companies. The rise iri the shares was quite justified, for dividends have averaged 20 per cent, in latter years. Forty-two floating factories, with 2.30' hunting boats, were used during the present winter, thirty floating factories with 155 boats being registered in Norway and the rest under foreign flags, chiefly English. Prices were as high as £3O during the season 1928-1929, but they sank to £25 when the result of this season's hunt was sold last year. Practically the whole output of the present season was sold last autumn, but as the output has been far greater than expected, the purchasers—so it is said in Norway—tried to cancel their buying orders because of heavy reduction in prices following the great over-production of oil. Tho correspondent adds:—"There is no doubt that a catastrophe would have happened had the companies decided to hunt next season. Price* would liavo fallen to next to nothing. As it is, prices will be maintained and the companies will bo able to get an adequate return for the stocks of oil on their hands. Most of the men who have been thrown out of work have their farms, which ought to keep them going during tho season."