The Daily News SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1935. CONTROL OF WHALING.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 September 1935, Page 6

The Daily News

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1935. CONTROL OF WHALING.

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While attention is focussed upon the possible action or inaction of the League of Nations in issues of peace and war, it should not be forgotten that it is functioning in other matters, admittedly less vital to civilisation, _ but of considerable moment to international industry and the natural resources of the world. A case in point is the League convention for the regulation of whaling, a matter that is clearly beyond the control of any individual nation. The history of New Zealand’s efforts to control whaling in a portion of Antarctica since the Dominion assumed control of the Ross Sea Dependency ten years ago shows the impossibility of controlling whaling by national regulations in what are undoubtedly international waters. In the 1925-26 season New Zealand received nearly £2500 in license fees from the only whaling venture operating in the Ross Sea area. In the same year, however, another company operated without a license in the Falkland region, claiming that the waters were international and free to all. Not unnaturally, the next year saw unlicensed whal-’ ing in the Ross Sea area, and the impossibility of any control by New Zealand becoming effective. Such control could only be instituted and maintained by international agreement, and the League of Nations has provided the necessary machinery whereby a convention has been agreed upon. Regulations under the convention . are now operative, and were gazetted in New Zealand last week. At present they are more or less tentative, and make no provision for the restriction of killings. There are, however, regulations providing for economical rendering of all carcases taken, the observance of which may make restriction of killings unnecessary. Furthermore the information available about the distribution of whales in the Antarctic is too meagre to determine the degree of restriction that is necessary or desirable. The convention makes provision for the collection of data, and at the end of three years, when the convention expires, some more permanent system of international control may be evolved from the information then available. There is plenty of evidence that there is need of control if whales are not to become extinct. Whaling has already ceased to be profitable in Arctic and Atlantic waters, and while estimates vary from 10 to 100 years for the time required, at the present rates of slaughter, there can be no doubt but that the end of the whaling industry in Antarctica is well within sight unless some system of control and regulation is instituted. The industry is one of value to the Dominion, and if properly regulated that value might increase considerably. There is also the humanitarian aspect demanding attention, although it has been often ignored in the past through greed or carelessness. By adopting the best methods of extracting oil and the utilisation of the rest of the carcase it is hoped that profits will be sufficient to make restriction of the numbers of whales slaughtered unnecessary. Such adoption should minimise also the slaughter of

the younger and smaller whales, one of the principal aids to the early extinction of the species. It is satisfactory on many grounds to note that international agreement in regard to whaling has been found possible. To have arrived at such a convention affecting as it does the doctrine of the “freedom of the seas,” of which Great Britain has been one of the most powerful of exponents, is a tribute to commonsense and international goodwill. The development good feeling in economic affairs should make it easier for international agreement upon matters of even graver moment.