PROTECTION OF WHALES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3915, 26 March 1929, Page 2

PROTECTION OF WHALES.

INTERNATIONAL COUNCILS

SEALS AND SEA LIONS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January 18. Among the important matters discussed by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea during its meetings at Copenhagen last year were the protection of whales and the cooperation of the council with the League of Nations with regard to the regulation of the resources of the sea, with special reference to whaling and seal hunting. Mr David T. Jones, chairman of H.M. Fishery Board, Scotland, and Mr Henry G. Maurice (Fisheries Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries), the British delegates to the council, in their report, now out, state that they supported proposals for the further study of fishing gears designed to save undersized fish. Denmark, Germany, ■ Great Britain, Poland, Spain, and Sweden had undertaken specific researches in this connection.

In the Whaling Committee special stress was laid on the importance of obtaining comprehensive statistics of whaling operations all over the world, and it was hoped that the League of Nations might be of assistance in procuring statistics from countries not represented on the council. The opinion of the Governments' concerned is also to be asked whether, (lending the result of investigations now in progress, a limit would be set to •whaling,operations; whether there could be a general application of measures to secure the. protection of young immature whales and female whales accompanied by calves; if there could be the prohibition of fishing in areas where the general, condition of whales is so poor that fishing in them is wasteful and uneconomic; and whether absolute protection could be afforded to species of whales which could be proved to have been so seriously reduced in numbers as to be in ■danger of; practical extinction. of tile. League of -NatipfisAvisited' the council. to discuss tire question of the international regula--isf ,ifishing,.-and> a< memorandum to, the League was adopted by the council. In this it was stated that the members

of the council were responsible to their respective Governments, and the council was not therefore in a position to submit to another body with a different constitution concrete proposals involving international action.

On the other hand, any scientific information within the knowledge of the council and its experts would be placed at the disposal of the League, together with expert assistance.

The general question submitted by the League was “ whether, under what conditions, in respect oi what species, and in.what regions an international protection of the fauna of the sea might he established.” This had been considered under three heads as referring to (1) food fishes; (2) seals, sea lions, etc.; and (3) the great cetaceans.

With regard to food fishes the reply of the council was that the problem was not one which lent itself to treatment by means of an international convention of general application. It was questionable, therefore, whether the intervention of the League would have any practical utility. The council was not at present competent to express an opinion with reference to seals and sea-lions, since hitherto it had only studied seals in European waters in their relation to fisheries, and not from the point of view of their commercial exploitation. As ’regards the third point, the council was not at preesnt disposed to advance any concrete proposals for the regulation of whaling for embodiment in an international convention of general application. Nor was it prepared to go further than to endorse the principle generally accepted in theory, that every Government concerned should, so far as it had the power, prevent the wasteful exploitation of whales.