WHALING SEASON IN ANTARCTICA WILL BE OPENED TODAY

Wanganui Chronicle, 22 December 1949, Page 5

WHALING SEASON IN ANTARCTICA WILL BE OPENED TODAY

AUCKLAND. Last Night (PA).— Over the cold foggy watery of the Antarctic tomorrow the first booms sf harpoon guns will mark the beginning of the new whaling season. Whalers from many countries are in position all round the circle of the ocean skirting the great ice masses of the South.

At least two Japanese whalers carrying United States observers are known to b» ready in the waters close to New Zealand’s Ross Sea Dependency. The two ships are the Hashidate Maru and the Nippon Maru, names which have become familiar to Dominion meteorologists through their regular weather reports for the two past whaling seasons. Early last week, as they passed through the Tasman Sea on their way from Japan to the Antarctic, they made their first weather signals. On Monday, when they last reported, they were in the waters of the Australian dependency close to Ross Sea. Midsummer in Antarctica consisted of fog and drizzle and temperatures around freezing point. The Hashidate Maru reported seeing two icebergs and many pieces of ice. By now the two ships have probably pressed further south into Ross Sea across the Antarctic Circle. Much of New Zealand's weather has its origin in the bleak wastes of the Southern waters, and reports from the whalers are of great value to Dominion meteorologists. The whaling season fixed by the International Whaling Convention will last from tomorrow until April 7 unless the catch of all the whaling fleets exceeds the 16,000 blue whale units before that date. Two fin whales count as one blue whale.