PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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CO 885
23 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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APPENDICES.
foraging along his usual ocean track finds plenty of food all the way; this will delay, if not altogether prevent, him from touching at his usual resorts in these latitudes. With regard to the blue and fin whales, they have been numerous throughout the past seasons and are to be found off the Depend- eney practically the whole year round; but it should be remembered that these whales have not been hunted to any great extent previously to the past two seasons whereas the humpback has been the most persecuted of whales in recent years all over the world."
Later on (at p. 171 below) attention is called, in another connexion, to certain circumstances which suggest that the tackle of the floating factories was designed for the purpose of dealing with humpbacks and is, therefore, not adapted for the heavier work involved in the treatment of whales of much larger size.
The little we know concerning the breeding habits of these animals is sufficient to teach us that the rate of propagation is a slow one. Our knowledge of the migratory movements, for which we are so largely indebted to Risting, suggests that the stock of humpbacks is limited; that these whales are not distributed throughout the wide ocean tracts but are bound intimately to definite highways formed by certain of the great oceanic currents. In face of such considerations it appears to be difficult to believe that such a species can long survive wholesale and indiscriminate butchery.
On 27th November, 1918, Major Barrett-Hamilton made the following entry in his Journal:-
"The scarcity of whales thus far is partly due to the bad weather, blow- ing one day, fog the next, but also to actual scarcity. This the whaling people explain by saying that the whales have not yet arrived, that food is scarce, and that the water is too cold. They say that the shrimps are in small patches round which they find a few whales, which eat them all and are then gone. In other places the water is brownish, not blue, showing that the food is deep down; in such places they find humpbacks, but they are diving deep down and difficult to catch."
A marginal note to this entry says:-"Mr. Henriksen, in particular, says that they have taken no more whales compared to the herds as a whole than have fisher- man of herrings, and that they saw large numbers of whales, which left South Georgia in peace in 1911 and have not come back since."
Mr. Henriksen's statement is similar to that made by northern whalers respect- ing their catches, and I readily accept it as accurate; it may be conceded also that a great number of the survivors of the season of 1910-11 which departed from South Georgia were humpbacks, although I think the majority must have been the at that time little molested finner and blue whales.
It is important to remember that the whalers of South Georgia have only inflicted a part of the total annual loss which the humpback herds of the South Atlantic have sustained. As in South Georgia, so everywhere else; the convenient size of the humpback and the ease with which it is flensed renders it the first and favourite object of pursuit to the whalers. Mörch said, in 1911 :-
"From the southern coasts of South America, South Shetland, the Falk- land Islands, South Georgia, the coasts of South Africa, and Kerguelen Island, whaling is now being prosecuted with an ever-increasing number of whaling steamers and with returns of oil undreamt of only a few years ago. Humpbacks constitute the great bulk of the whales caught in most of the above-mentioned localities.
in some of these southern localities the whales are only flensed and the carcasses left to be driven by wind and tide."
Mörch's paper is illustrated by a photograph (text-figure 180) of a "Floating factory and whaling steamer in harbour. Deception Island, South Shetland; with floating carcasses of humpbacks," of which seven can be seen; no other kind of whale is represented in this picture. This photograph appears to have been taken during the season of 1909-10, and it is some evidence, perhaps, that at that time the majority of the whales caught at South Shetland were, as at South Georgia, humpbacks. The
* Olsen, Proceedings Zoological Society, 1913, ii., p. 1084, speaking of African whaling (Saldanha
Bay and Durban), says: The whalers always prefer to take the more valuable humpback whale when this species appears on the spot in May."
APPENDICES.
157
catch made in the Dependencies of the Falkland Islands other than South Georgia (South Shetlands and Graham's Land chiefly) during 1011-12, was 5,086 whales; of these 2,301, or 45-2 per cent. were humpbacks, 1,805, or 35.5 per cent. were finners, 963, or 19 per cent. were blue whales, and 17, or 0-3 per cent, were right whales.——— (Colonial Office Memorandum, 15759).* According to Mr. Salvesen, the 32 steam whalers working at South Shetland and Graham's Land killed in the season of 1912-13 about 5,000 whales; of these 43 per cent. were finners, 35 per cent. blue whales, and only about 22 per cent. humpbacks. At the South Orkneys in 1912-13, about 800 whales were taken by the six steam whalers operating there; in this catch the proportion of the various species was much the same as at the South Shetlands and Graham's Land. There thus seems to be good reason for thinking that the number of the humpbacks present during the summer in these Antarctic districts has greatly diminished during the past few years. It is noteworthy that in 1911- 12, when humpbacks constituted 91 per cent. of the catch at South Georgia, they formed less than half the catch at the Antarctic stations, and in 1912-13, when humpbacks still accounted for 53.8 per cent. of the catch of the three leading species at South Georgia, they had already declined to third place in the catch and formed no more than about 22 per cent. at South Shetland and the South Orkneys. These facts indicate that the shrinkage of the humpback stock became visible at the more southern and colder stations at an earlier moment than in the more favourably situated island of South Georgia; in this we seem to have a perfect analogy with what was observed on the coasts of Finmark and Russian Lapland. Mörch says:- "In the eighties, two whaling stations were started" on the Murman coast "by the Russians, and under apparently favourable auspices as to the number of whales which were seen in this locality. After a few seasons of successful hunting, however, the whales became scarcer and scarcer, so that at last their pursuit had to be given up. This agrees also very well with our own experience on the Finmark coast, where the whaling stations in the eastern localities had to be moved westwards at a comparatively early date, as the whales became scarcer in the colder areas towards the Murman coast."
I have no information at hand with regard to South American whaling.
It has been shown above, under " Breeding and Migration" (p. 90), that the humpbacke found at certain seasons on the African coasts are in all probability annual visitors from the region of South Georgia, migrating equator-wards for the dual purpose of pairing and parturition. An article in the Christiania newspaper Tidens Tegn, issue of 10th May, 1913, gives a review, illustrated by a sketch-map, of the extent of the industry in Africa. The following is a translation :—
"In connexion with our article the other day on the efforts which are being made in Germany and France in order to limit whaling on the African coasts, it will be of interest to see a review of the Norwegian companies which will
pursue the industry in Africa during the season of 1013,
"The above sketch-map shows the Norwegian stations:-
1-6 (on the map) indicate Norwegian whaling companies on the
French Congo:-
Dominion Whaling Company, managers, T. Dannevig and Company,
Sandefjord.
Aekvator Company, manager, Chr. Castberg, Sandefjord.
Alpha and Beta, manager, Lars Christensen, Sandefjord.
New Zealand Whaling Company, manager, Chr. Neilsen, Larvik. Western Australia, manager, Chr. Neilsen! Larvik.
South Pacific, Rich. Osmundsen, Kristiania.
(7-18 stations in Portuguese Angola)
7. Bas, manager, Nielsen-Alonco, Sandefjord.
8: South Atlantic, manager, L. Brunn, Tönsberg:
9. Comp. de Pesca de Ballerva am manager, P. Bogen, Sandefjord.
10. Viking, manager, P. Bogen, Sandefjord.
Mossamedes (Portuguese).
11. The Southern Whaling and Sealing Company, managers, Irwin
and Johnson, North Shields.
12. Kastor, manager, N. Bugge, Tönsberg.
13. Haugesunds Whaling Company, manager, Erich Lindöe,
Haugesund.
*No. 48 in Miscellaneous No. 278.
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