5
Humpbacked Whales.
Megaptera lalandii, Gray.
South Atlantic.
Megaptera noce zealandia, Gray.
South Pacific.
Megaptera cullamack (Chamissa).
Oceania.
Megaptera indica, Gervais.
Indian Ocean.
All Humpbacked Whales want special protection.
False Right Whales.
Neobalana marginata, Gray.
South Pacific.
Right Whales.
Balena australis, Desmoulines.
South Atlantic,
Blue Whales.
Rachianectes glaucus, Cope.
Central Pacific.
Cape Seas.
Orca pacifica, Gray.
South Pacific and New Zealand Seas.
Orca magellanica, Burm.
South Atlantic.
1821
Sperm Wales.
No. 2.
Physeter macrocephalus, Linn.
South Seas.
Wants special protection.
Cogia breviceps, Blainville.
Southern and Indian Ocean.
Beaked or Sharp-nosed Whales.
Ziphius australis, Burmeister.
South Atlantic.
Ziphius chathamensis, Hector.
Australian and New Zealand Seas; South Pacific.
Double-toothed Beaked Whales.
Mesoplodon hectori, Gray.
South Pacific Ocean.
Mesoplodon layardi, Gray.
South Atlantic Ocean.
Mesoplodon grayi, Haast.
New Zealand Seas.
Mesoplodon densirostris, Blainville.
Rorquals.
"Balanoptera antarctica, Gray.
Southern Seas.
Balanoptera bonærensis, Bol.
South Atlantic and Cape Seas.
Balanoptera huttoni, Gray.
South Pacific.
Balanoptera edeni, Anderson.
Indian Ocean.
Balaenoptera schlegelii, Flower.
Indian and South Pacific Oceans.
Balanoptera potochonica, Burmeister.
South Atlantic.
Balanoptera tschudii, Reich.
South Pacific.
Balanoptera grayi, MacCoy.
Australian Seas.
Balanoptera blythi, Anderson,
Indian Ocean.
Balanoptera indica, Blyth.
Indian Ocean and Red Sen.
SIR,
COLONIAL OFFICE to FOREIGN OFFICE.
[Answered by No. 3.]
Downing Street, 20 April, 1912. WITH reference to the second paragraph of your letter of the 14th of August last,* I am directed by Mr. Secretary Harcourt to request that you will inform Secre- tary Sir Edward Grey that he has had under his consideration the general question of the protection of whales with a view to the preservation of the whaling industry.
2. That industry is pursued for the most part separately from the hunting of the other animals referred to in the enclosures to your letter, and it appears to Mr. Harcourt that it may conveniently be made the subject of a distinct correspondence.
3. So far as the Crown Colonies are concerned, at present the great bulk of the industry is carried on in certain dependencies of the Falkland Islands, namely South Georgia and the South Shetland Islands. A lease of Prince Edward and Marion Islands in the South Indian Ocean, which enables the lessee to use the islands as a whaling station, has been granted for nineteen years from 1st August, 1910; and Heard Islands have been leased for the same purpose for three years from 1st July, 1910. Applications have been made for whaling facilities in St. Helena and the East Africa Protectorate, but no active operations have been undertaken. The whaling which was formerly carried on from some of the West Indian Islands has shrunk to negligible proportions.
4. Whaling is conducted from South Georgia by eight companies, which hold leases of land sites for whaling purposes for terms of twenty-one years, running from Each of these leases carries the right to employ dates ranging from 1907 to 1911.
The later leases contain one floating factory and from two to four steam whalers.
an obligation to utilise the whole carcase of the whale, which, in the present state of development of floating factories, is usually found to involve the erection of a shore factory to treat the bones, and to treat the flesh also unless the floating factory is provided with pressure boilers or digesters.
These companies caught in the season 1910-11, 6,529 whales, of which 6,197 were humpback, 168 fin, 85 blue, and 75 right whales. The gross value of the pro- ducts was about £600,000.
5. One lease has been granted in the South Shetlands on terms similar to those of the South Georgia leases, but the industry in the dependencies other than South Georgia and in the Falkland Islands themselves is almost entirely conducted under a system of annual licences authorising the employment of a floating factory and two or three steam whalers. One company is allowed five whalers under a single
30112: not printed.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
6
mmimmim C.O. 885
22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO