WHALE SLAUGHTER

Taranaki Daily News, 12 July 1929, Page 14

WHALE SLAUGHTER

c. A. LARSEN’S CARGO NATURALIST MAKE'S PROTEST. APPEAL FOR CLOSED SEASON. The following interesting letter from an American naturalist was published recently in the New York Herald Tribune upon the wholesale Slaughter o! whale which has been taking place in the waters to the south of New Zealand: —■ Among the news items of the week there appeared an account of the return from Antarctic waters of the whaling ship C. A. Larsen, especially constructed to “literally gobble up whale” laden with £400,000 worth of oil. . . . for one soap-manufacturing concern” —with a sub-heading to the article mentioning the fact, “One harpooner killed 195 blue whales.”

The writer does not wish to attack tha C. A. Larsen or its crew. After all, they are only obeying the universal dictum, “while there is still a dollar to be had let us hasten for it before some one else does —even if it takes us to tha South Pole.” Our interest is the whale. We must not forget that more and more, as the years roll on, its numbers are-being reduced by such economically needless enterprises to the point of complete extirpation from the waters of the earth. There ' are, or were, many species of whale, of the largest mammals that •have ever existed (103 feet having been recorded for the Sulphur Bottom). Because they are mammals, in a sense they are our kith and kin, being both warm blooded and-bringing forth their young alive, and suckling them. Also, formerly they were great wanderers, and wo know that their range was truly enormous. To-day, however, so scarce have they become, and so restricted their range, that whaling vessels in quest of them encounter but a tithe of their former numbers and kinds, and cover many times the mileage once necessary to load their barrels (or tanks) with oil, HOW MUCH LONGER.

The fact that the industry doos not operate on the same extensive scale as in years gone by (witness the sleepy old New England whaling towns as contrasted with the reported scenes of their tremendous activities in the ’Bo’s of the last century) has little or nothing to do with the competition offered by oils, of mineral origin. The wane of the whaling industry was due solely to the wane in the numbers of the animals from relentless slaughter. The status of the industry to-day is such that it is only by means of specially constructed ships, utilising highly specialised means of pursuing, killing and butchering a written account of which might .be. made to repd like a chapter from the world’s greatest shambles, with none of the glamour and romance of a Melville novel —that the “racket” is still profitable for a few concerns represented by the C. A, Larsen.

The important thing, however, is how much longer can it last? In how few years, surely not many, will the last sperm, blue, right, finback, bowhead or .gray ■whale be literally blown up and its fragments, still pulsating with life, boiled down .to oil—to make a. piece of soap the materials of which might better have been retrieved from •the countless tons of greasy garbage that go to the waste annually in the dumps of every large city. Garbage goes on for ever, but whales may be doomed in a day. So poor if the memory of man that he has apparently forgotten already the fate that nearly befel the fur seals of the Pribilof Islands.

These fur seals, saved from the. very brink of extermination, are mentioned because it is possible to be guided by them in consideration of what may sti'V be done for the whale. .

PROTECTIVE SUGGESTIONS. Be it recalled, by virtue of international treaty and our own strict governmental monopoly and supervision, that the fur seal is to-day contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to our national wealth and measure of prosperity. In a like manner it is conceivable that by treaty arrangement with several nations enforcing a closed season for rehabilitation, banning the us< of whale oil and whale products and following this with a careful supervision of all future activities, it would be possible to retain the whales as not only harmless but economically desirable inhabitants of infrequently visited waters, and at the same time ultimately permit a reasonable exploitation of nature’s generous but unfortunately not inexhaustive bounties.

Action along these lines must be in the hands of such * body as the League of Nations —hr whom is reposed the salvation and hope of one of Nature’® most interesting and highly specialised creations.