PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :---
༄། ?། ། ‛། ། ། mimimmt.m.C.O. 885
23 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
66
APPENDICES.
the schools of humpbacks which visit the South African coast during a certain part of the year may be identical with those which are found off South Georgia at other times.
Collett ("Norges Pattedyr," Kristiania, 1912, page 607) says:--" The bulk of these southern humpbacks occur during the summer months (December to March) at a larger or smaller number of great feeding places in the South Polar sea, in order to feed on the plentiful plankton-food which at that time of the year develops in the neighbourhood of the ice. Thence in the spring (July to September) they undertake "time of Yngletid " means extensive breeding-migrations” [“ Ynglevandringer"; parturition," not
"towards the north, along the South "time of pairing"] American and African coasts to the warmer oceanic regions near the equator; at present they are everywhere the object of an intense whaling."
44
Other tribes of southern humpbacks wander about between the South Polar Sea and the South Sea Islands and can press up towards the Indian Ocean or around Australia."
"* shows that that The memorandum on the floating whale factory "Benguela vessel fished in Tiger Bay, Portuguese Angola, in 1912, during a season which began not earlier than May and ended not later than November: that she made a large catch which consisted almost entirely of humpbacks. The Colonial Office is in pos- session of memoranda which show that there are several whaling stations on the west coast of Africa, and that a Norwegian company operating as far north as Cape
in 1912. Lopez in the French Congo took about 600 "whales
32
I have been shown a confidential communication from the Admiralty to the Foreign Office which contains a report to the Admiralty made on 1st December, 1912, by the Senior Naval Officer on the West Coast of Africa, Lieutenant F. E. K. Strong, of H.M.S. "Dwarf," stationed at St. Paul de Loanda. In this report it is stated that sperm whales, black humpbacked whales, and blue whales are found on the west coast: and that "of these by far the greatest number are the hump- backed whales, and these come up from the South Polar seas, on their way to the Bay of Biafra, where they breed each year."
"They are on their northward run from May till the end of July, and on their return journey from the middle of August until the middle of November."
"They usually follow the line of the coast, and do not go more than about 12
miles out.
The passage cited is of considerable importance. In the first place, it contains the first information as to the courses which the humpbacks follow during their annual visit to the west coast and the first (saving, perhaps, the statement of Collett cited above) positive assertion of the identity of the West African and South Polar herds. In the second place, these southern herds are stated to cross the equator and therefore the possibility of the southern humpbacks being specifically identical with those of northern seas is made more probable; a further possibility is sug- gested, viz., that there may be an interchange of individuals between the southern and northern herds in equatorial waters.
In a letter, dated from Leith Harbour 12th January, 1914, to Dr. Harmer, Major Barrett-Hamilton said that he could see no difference between the southern humpbacks and those of the north; in an earlier letter (Leith Harbour, 2nd December, 1913) to Mr. Fagan, he said of the humpbacks that:-"The colour is as variable as elsewhere, perhaps inclining to the black type." These statements as far as they go tend to support Lieutenant Strong's assertion of the identity of the West African with the South Polar herds. The points mentioned in the preceding paragraph are obviously of considerable practical importance, and it will require
upon them. further research of two kinds before a final judgment can be formed
In the first place, it will be necessary to examine the humpbacks at one or more of the African whaling stations in order to acquire data which can be compared with those collected in South Georgia by Major Barrett-Hamilton. With regard to this, Major Barrett-Hamilton, in a letter to Mr. Fagan, dated 14th October, 1913, written while on the journey to South Georgia, and after discussion with the repre Thor," mentioned sentatives of the whaling companies then on board the 8.8. "Saldanha Bay or some other station on west coast of South Africa mended as favourable place for further study. Cape Tropez (? Lopez), in the From a discussion I had with French Congo, also recommended for collecting."
*No. 17 in Miscellaneous No. 278.
33
C
28 recom-
No. 18A in Miscellaneous No. 278.
The paper by Risting (p. 180) has been discovered since this was written.
APPENDICES.
67
Major Barrett-Hamilton before his departure, I understood that he contemplated Durban as a very suitable place for further anatomical research, since some of the South Polar herds probably pass up the east coast of South Africa instead of up the west coast; I am informed by Mr. Stammwitz that while in South Georgia Major Barrett-Hamilton still thought that further observations at the Durban Station were very desirable.
With regard to the second kind of research required, Major Barrett-Hamilton, in his letter of 12th January, 1914, to Dr. Harmer said:"Later on, if these in- vestigations are continued, someone will have to go out on the whale-boats and study the whales at sea." As mentioned on page 59, such observations are necessary in the neighbourhood of South Georgia in order to test the estimates made as to the date of the beginning of the pairing season; they are also, in view of Lieutenant Strong's report, particularly desirable on the west coast of Africa, both above and below the equator.
As in South Georgia so everywhere else the convenient size of the humpback and the great ease with which it is flensed renders it the favourite and first object of pursuit to the whalers. In the memorandum* on "Whaling in the Dominions it is stated that in Natal of 799 whales caught in 1912, no fewer than 770 were humpbacks. The total numbers of whales caught there in the years 1908 to 1911 are given as 105, 155, 532, and 1,061 respectively; assuming that in these years the percentage of humpbacks caught was the same as in 1912, we may estimate the numbers of whales of this species taken in these years as approximately 100, 150, 510, and 1,020 respectively.
Lieutenant Strong says in his report that:-"It was calculated that last year (1911) about 14,000 whales passed up the coast, of which about 4,000 were killed. This year (1912) there have been about 12,000 of which about 4,250 have been killed. Probably a far greater number will be killed next year."
"It is calculated that at this rate of wholesale butchery, in six years' time practically all the whales on this coast will have been exterminated." Be it remein- bered that "by far the greatest number are humpbacks.
If now, as seems highly probable, the African herds are identical with those which in other and alternate seasons of the year frequent the South Polar seas in general, and the vicinity of South Georgia in particular, we find a third cause for the startlingly sudden and progressive reduction of the numbers of humpbacks which have visited South Georgia during the last two seasons. The cold polar current appears on the west coast of Africa to form the only path through the tropical seas to the equator traversed by these whales; and this cold current has an essentially littoral course. Practically the whole stock of humpbacks is there- fore exposed twice a year to the onslaught of the whaler. These unfortunate creatures are slaughtered wholesale wherever they appear and at whatever season: when they go south to feed on 'kril' they are ruthlessly harried; on their northward run to the place of parturition and pairing they are again fiercely attacked. Though calves are now protected at South Georgia no regard is had to condition, age, or sex in African waters. Strong says:-"Many calves have been killed and not used at all," and throughout this region there has been the most wilful waste. Such indiscriminate carnage can have but one end-speedy extermination; from an economic point of view alone it is pure folly.
The humpback thus seems to stand in urgent need of protection if its early extinction is to be avoided. An absolute prohibition to take it anywhere, or at all events at South Georgia, during a term of years, would probably be the most effect- tive expedient if it were practicable; failing such a prohibition a close season at South Georgia embracing the months of October, November, and December,† and a regulation of universal application against the killing or shooting of " any whale, calf, or any female whale which is accompanied by a calf" would probably be of great benefit. I am not able to find any definite recommendation on the subject by Major Barrett-Hamilton among his memoranda, but he appears to have contem- plated a close season"; on his copy of the lettert from the Stipen- diary Magistrate of South Georgia to the Colonial Secretary there is, in his
*No. 26 in Miscellaneous No. 278.
+ Modified in complete report, where May to November (inclusive) is recommended as "close
season in all parts of South Atlantic and also on East African coast.
† No. 12 in Miscellaneous No. 278.