WHALES IN ANTARCTIC

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1931, Page 10

WHALES IN ANTARCTIC

DEPLETION OF STOCK.

BRITISH SCIENTIFIC STUDY.

London, June 2.

The object of the voyage of the Discovery 11., which returned to England yesterday, was to secure permanence for the whaling industry in the south. This has involved widespread research. The main object of the Discovery 11. and her consort, the 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 movements and the occurrence of good and bad whaling years. To that end the Discovery 11. has therefore taken a long series of observations throughout two Antarctic summers and over the whole of the South Georgia whaling grounds, an area of over 2600 miles. Thousands of hauls have been made at all depths, with nets used for biological work, and thousands of temperatures and water samples have been taken. Operations have been 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.

The two seasons spent by Discovery 11. in the South have differed very widely, for in 1929-30 the edge of the pack ice was unusually far south, while in 1930-31 heavy pack extended markedly northwards. This has added greatly to the value of the results, as close comparison has thus been possible between two years of widely different conditions.

Antarctic navigation, one need hardly say, is a hazardous affair, and the Discovery H.’s work has the supreme value of making for greater safety by correction of existing charts, often found defective. The Discovery 11. surveyed many areas, including most notably the South Sandwich Islands, which had not beeu surveyed since Captain Cook and Admiral Von Bellinghausen explored them 100 years ago. Running surveys have also been made of Bouvet Island, the South Shetlands, 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 the ship. The setback to the whaling industry, due to over-production, makes this report of first-rate importance, but the setback ought only to be temporary, and will probably be effectively met by drastic reduction of whaling next season.

It has been feared for some time that southern whaling operations would so greatly reduce the stock 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 anticipated alike by whaling and scientific opinion. The temporary, but great reduction of whaling Wtvill afford a much-needed breathing space to the stock, and if this is widely used for the development of well-based regulations it should lead to the renewal of the industry on a scale which will ensure its permanence.