WHALING PIONEERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22215, 16 September 1935, Page 6

WHALING PIONEERS

COOK STRAIT INDUSTRY JACKSONS OF TORY CHANNEL The Cook Strait whaling season, that came in with May, will end iirith September. It has been an excellent season for the Marlborough w!balers at Tory Channel. Their harpoons have claimed already 57 humpbacks, and their trying-pots have yie'lded the greater part of 300 tons of oil, stated Mr. James Jackson, of Jackson's Bay, who was interviewed during a visit to Wellington. He is an authority on whaling. His grandfather entablished the industry at the Tory Channel station many years ago. Mr. Jackson said that his father, also named James Jackson, had carried on the whaling, and he himself had taken part in it, until about 1911. when the launch whaling commenced. They were accustomed to whale from May to September, and to farm the rest of the year. The whaling business had altered considerably since then, said the old whaler regretfully. "It was proper sport in those days," he remarked. The whales in these waters, said Mr. Jackson,' were mostly humpbacks and right whales. The former species were predominant. A big humpback would run up to about 400 tons in weight, a right whale up to about 500 tons. The.v came north in Slay, to mate in the warm seas. In June they were seen in Fijian and island waters. They returned south in November. Mr. Jackson contradicted the theor.v that the right whale never came north of Kaikoura. He conceded, however, that they did not travel as far to the north as did the humpbacks.