BREATHING SPACE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17527, 23 July 1931, Page 12

BREATHING SPACE

WHALES IN ANTARCTIC DEPLETION QF STOCK BRITISH SCIENTIFIC STUDY LONDON, dune 2. The object of the voyage of the Discovery 11, which returned to England vesterdav, was to secure permanence for the whaling industry in the south. This has involved widespread research. The main object of Hie Discovery If and her consort, tbo William Scoresby, is to compare one area with another, and one season with another, to try to find, by means of hydrological and biological researches, the reasons for the concentration of whales in certain parts of the Antarctic and to explain their move ments and the occurrence of good and bad whaling years. To that end the Discovery II has taken a long series of observations throughout: two Antarctic summers, and over the whole of the South Georgia whaling grounds, an area of over 2fCO miles. Thousands of hauls have been made at all depths, with nets used for biological work, and thousands of temperatures and vvatyr samples have been taken. • VALUABLE RESULTS

Operations have bedn carried out even in winds approaching a full gale, and analysis of all water samples and a large part of the biological collections has been, carried out in laboratories on board.

Tlie two seasons Spent by Discovery II in the South have differed very widely, for in 1929-30 the edge of the packice was unusually ■ far south, while in 1920-31 heavy pack extended markedly northwards. This has added greatly to the value’ of the results, as* close comparison. has.Unis been possible between two years of widely different conditions. Antarctic navigation, one need hardly say, is a hazardous affair, and the Discovery Il's work has the supreme value of making for greater safety by correction of existing charts, often found defective. The Discovery II surveyed many areas, including most notably the South Sandwich Isands, which had not been surveyed since Captain Cbok and Admiral Yon Bellingliausen explored them 100 years ago. Running surveys have been made of Bouvet Island, the South Slietlands, and the South Orkneys. This work of charting Antarctic seas has been very effectively carried out by the Admiralty pattern echo-sounding apparatus carried by tlie ship. The setback to the winding industry, due to over-production, makes this report of first-rate importance, but the setback ought only to be temporary, a‘nd will probably be effectively met by drastic reduction of whaiing next season. It lias been feared for some time that southern whaling operations would so greatly reduce the slock of whales that the industry would die out. It is consoling to learn that these difficulties have preceded permanent collapse, due to depletion of the stock, which, if the immense expansion of recent years continued. was am inflated alike by .whaling and scientific opinion. The temporary but great reduction,of whaling will afford a much-needed breathing space to the stock, and if this is widely used for the development of well-based regulations it shomd lead to the renewal of the industry on a scale which will ensure its permanence.— Auckland Star.