WHALING AGREEMENT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19127, 23 September 1936, Page 5

WHALING AGREEMENT

BRITAIN AND NORWAY CLOSE SEASON PLANNED (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 3.30 a.m. RUGBY, Sept. 21. After protracted negotiations, an agreement lias been reached between the British and Norwegian Governments upon measures to be taken during the forthcoming whaling season. The basis of the present agreement is to prevent excessive diminution of the whale population .by restriction by a close season and by limitation of the number of whale catchers used at any one time in connection with a whale factory ship. In a few exceptional cases, restriction by quota has been substituted for restriction by a close season. The open season is to be from Decern, ber 8, 1936, to March 17, 1937, and the number of whale catchers allowed to be used at one time by a factory ship varies from five to seven. SEVEN MYSTERY SHIPS NORWEGIAN UNIT VOYAGE TO DOMINION (Reed. Sept. 23, 11.30 a.m.) MELBOURNE, Sept. 22. With reference to the seven unidentified vessels reported by the lighthouse keeper to have been seen oil' Wilson's Promontory, five travelling south-east yesterday and two headed towards New Zealand to-day, the director of navigation, Captain J. K. Davis, has no doubt that the .ships comprised a Norwegian whaling unit bound for the south. A message from Sydney reports the Minister of Defence, Sir Archdale Barkhill, as saying that he bad been advised that the ships sighted off Wilson's Promontory were Norwegian whalers which had been operating off the Western Australian coast and were now on the way to New Zealand.