WHALES OF THE IRISH COAST.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10673, 24 January 1911, Page 2

WHALES OF THE IRISH COAST.

CURIOUS USES OF WHALEBONE. A whale fishery was established some years ago on the. west coast of Ireland. Four steamers are now employed in this industry, and during the last two years 124 whales have been caught. Ten years ago these animals were looked upon as interesting stragglers rather than as native nutiiiiujl.s. The idea of a whale iishery on the Irish coast would have seemed absurd to most people. Now two companies are at work, the Aranmore Whaling Company on Inishkea and the Blaeksod Whaling Company at Elly Point, both in County Mayo. From a scientific point of view the chief interest in these fisheries, as Br Sebarff points out, is the insight tfius given into -the natural history of these mammals, which could-scarcely be ob- : tained in any other way. "Nothing short of capturing a whale," he says, "will enable us to identify it satisfactorily." The old list of' Irish whalebone whales included five species, the southern right whale, humpbacked whale, Sibbald's rorqual, common, rorqual and lesser rorquifl. The captures of the whaling companies seem to throw doubt on the first named, for all the right whales captured by them seem to have been the' northern right whale. They have also added to the list the northern rorqual. The Irish list of whalebone whales now contains seven species, of which the southern right whale is doubtful. Whales may be divided, into two welldefined groups, the whalebone whales and the toothed whales. Of the latter the Irish list contains.the sperm whale, the bottle-nosed whale and the beaked whale. The former group, though toothless when adult, start life with rudimentary teeth. These are replaced by "a horny substance which grows, from the upper jaw in long sheets of triangu-. lar plates." - These are attached to the roof of the mouth and form that familiar article whalebone.

Some people, declares Dr Scharff, still persist in believing that whalebone is made of whale's ribs, and others that it comes from the tail- The function of whalebone in the life of the whale is of primary importance. The inner edges of the whalebone plates are frayed into innumerable hairlike processes, and the whole forms a sort of sieve-by means .of which the whale sifts out its food from the sea water. For the food of thisj gigantic creature consists chiefly of minute organisms, Crustacea, mollusca, etc., floating near the surface. When the whale opens its mouth and moves along a great- multitude of these find their way in. Then it closes its mouth, and the water is strained out through the whalebone sieve, and the food is retained. The common uses of whalebone are known to everyone, but Dr Scharff mentions two which are probably not generally known. The fine internal fringes above mentioned are now employed in the making of barristers' wigs. They are light, and it is found that they retain the curl better than ordinary hair. Fine whalebone threads are also sometimes used to stiffen the tissue in highclass silks. The other important use of the whale is in the production of oil. A full-grown right whale may have a thickness of one foot of blubber beneath the skin, and a large specimen may yield thirty barrels of oil. Every particle of the carcases of the whales captured in the Irish fisheries is utilised, and in addition to oil and -whalebone, cattle food, guano and bone manure are obtained.