[?]Odern Whaling As It

Affects Copra Industry

A Review by JPS

3 whale oil is one of the more important of the many factors affecting the price of copra, :*rief survey of that industry’s nent-day methods may interest onut-growers. here is a world of difference bewhaling to-day and that of days of Herman Melville and Moby Dick. For a beginning, scene of operations in the main shifted from the tropics to the sarctic. Yet not wholly, for liers will recall reports of “mys :dus” vessels sighted in the nity of New Ireland and the niralties in the summer of .-52. These were undoubtedly vessels of the Japanese whaling b licensed during that season hunt sperm whales —the only ely sperm-hunting fleet operat during that season. r haling now is strictly controlled the 17-nations International aling Commission, whose head rters are in London. Even Russia a signatory to the agreement ted in 1945, and appears to abide its terms. Whaling Commission 3rvers are carried aboard every .ory ship to see that prohibited jding-grounds are not worked, b no undersized whales or cows i calves are killed, that every ;h is reported, and that the wed quantity is not exceeded, i June of every year the Whal- Commission fixes the opening , closing dates for the coming »on and the total quantity to be ;n by the combined fleets. The son’s catch is announced in blue ile units—the blue whale being largest of all whales, averaging ut 90 feet long and yielding ut 120 barrels of oil. Thus for :y blue caught the whalers may ;h two fin whales, two-and-a -: hunr or six sei whales, or the past two seasons the ning date for pelagic whaling in Antarctic has been January 2, the combined catch fixed at 00 blue-whale units. The closing 3 has been midnight on April 7 the 16,000 units have not been 3n sooner. s no catch is specified for in dual fleets there is naturally n rivalry to take the lion’s share the total allowable catch, and 1 increasing efficiency in equip it the seasons are tending to Dme progressively shorter. Faster ;hods of locating, killing and messing the catch are being idily developed. 3SERVERS aboard each factory ship radio the daily catch to the International Bureau of ale Statistics, and as the grand

total of 16,000 units is approached the observers are alerted to report each individual catch, until, finally, the signal is given to close down— and another whaling season is over.

So long as the total annual oil yield is kept at the same level, it is evident that the faster methods will react favourably on the whal ing industry. The whales are in poor condition when in Spring they head south for the Antarctic to gorge themselves in the rich southern feeding-grounds. The longer they are left to feed there, the fatter

they become. Therefore, if the season can open later, the same quantity of oil will be taken from fewer whales. The season’s closing date is governed by the whale’s migratory habits.

Since the war there have been important developments which aid speedier handling. Helicopters have been used by a British expedition to spot the whales—though the use of these is considered precarious in the quick-changing weather condi tions of the Antarctic. Experiments are now being made in the use of explosive rockets fired from heli copters.

Another device is the small float ing radio beacon, dropped by the helicopter in the vicinity of whales to guide the chasers to the scene by taking radio bearings on this

mature transmitting station, asers use a similar device, which ry attach to the whale after kill it, to guide the factory ship to • scene—the chaser meanwhile Ring on with the job of locating fi killing other whales. [ERHAPS the most important development, still experimental, is the new electric harpoon iich not only kills instantly, but uses no internal damage to the >at and by-products, and also :ows the whale to remain floating being killed. Whales killed oh an explosive harpoon usually Lk, unless immediately inflated oh compressed air by the whale aser. rhe major problem with the elec :c harpoon is the development of electric cable which will stretch ten under strain, as does the lion rope used with the orthodox olosive harpoon. Such a cable is w being tried out. If it is a suc >s it is expected that most of the ialing fleets will in future use 3 lighter, more easily handled -ctric harpoon-gun, which re ires much less skill. In the past e gunners have been the key ;n of the whaling industry, com mding high salaries.

Phis season new devices have also en developed for locating the lale under water and following it methods similar to modern anti bmarine location.

LAST season (1952) whale oil slumped heavily from as high as £172 per ton to £72, about 50,000 tons still remaining unsold in Norwegian hands at the opening of the 1953 season.

The decline was caused by in creasing world supplies of other oils, notably coconut oil. The effect has been to reduce the whaling fleets from twenty-one to eighteen— eight Norwegian, three British, three Japanese, one Russian, one South African, one Dutch and one from Panama, the latter actually German-owned.

In the 1952 season, the British Ministry of Food contracted to buy all the British-produced oil that was offering, at £llO per ton—though the free market fluctuated from £172, at the opening of the season, to £7O by the middle of last year.

What arrangements the British Ministry of Food has made for the 1953 season are unknown.

ANTARCTIC whaling is, in the main, for baleen whales whose diet is shrimps and prawns— the baleen or whalebone being a kind of strainer in the mouth of the whale which permits only these tiny crustaceans to be swal lowed. These whales produce edible oil.

The sperm whale, toothed, and living on cuttle fish, is the only variety that could swallow Jonah.

The giant blue has a very small throat.

Different regulations govern sperm whaling, the season opening earlier and the whaling grounds ex tending to the tropics. Most of the whaling fleets, en route to the Ant arctic, spend a period sperm whaling before the Antarctic season opens. Sperm oil is usable only for industrial purposes—steel-temper ing, paints, etc. In the 1952 season, sperm oil was quoted on the Lon don market at £BO per ton at a time when best grade edible whale

oil was bringing £ll5. Sperm oil supplies do not greatly influence the edible oil market. There was a considerable glut of sperm oil at the opening of the 1953 whaling season.

Although the availability of edible whale oil on the world market must influence the price of coconut oil, whale oil production in the 1953 season is unlikely to be much higher than last, and it may be lower. Next whaling season may see a reduction imposed by the Whaling Commission on the num ber of whales to be killed, though improved methods could hold the oil yield at the same level. There is. however, certainly no indication of greatly increased supplies of whale oil appearing on the world market.

Any adverse influence on copra prices is more likely to come irom increased world output of edible vegetable oils, including coconut oil, than from whaling, which appears to have much more to fear from the vegetable oil market than vice versa.

WHALING statistics show that there has been a marked de cline in the numbers and sizes of blue and fin whales caught in post war years. In 1946-47—the first post-war season—9,3o2 blue whales were taken. Two seasons later the total was 6,964 blue whales. The percentage of blues declined from

40.8 per cent, to 28.5 per cent. It may be that the Commission will heavily reduce the permissible num ber of blue whale killings for the next seven years—the time that it takes for a blue to reach maturity.

A decision on this point will be based on the results of the 1953 season’s whaling. Certainly, if the price of whale oil further declines,

fewer factories will go south next season.

Last season, 1951-52, the Ant arctic whaling fleets took 2,328 869 barrels of oil—and the three Ant arctic land stations produced 144 812 barrels. Outside the Antarctic—in New Zealand, South Africa and elsewhere—6s6,426 barrels were pro duced. (1953 season’s figures opposite).