Page:South - the story of Shackleton's last expedition, 1914-1917.djvu/492

370 when a school of eight bottlenose whales (Hyperoodon rostratus) appeared in small "pool" alongside "Ocean" Camp in lat. 67° 47´ S., long. 52° 18´ W. These ranged from circa 20 ft. to a little over 30 ft. in length, and were of a uniform dark dun colour—the large specimens having a dull yellow appearance. There were no white spots. At the edge of the pack-ice during the first half of April 1916, about lat. 62° S. and long. 54° W. (entrance to Bransfield Strait), whales were exceedingly numerous, and these were chiefly fin whales, though a few seemed to be sei whales. It is interesting to note that the fishing season 1915-1916 was exceptionally productive—no less than 11,860 whales having been captured in the Falkland area alone.

The South Atlantic whaling industry, then, has reached a critical stage in development. It is now dependent on the captures of the large fin and blue whales, humpbacks having been rapidly reduced in numbers, so that the total stock appears to have been affected. With regard to the other species, the southern right whale has never been abundant in the captures, the sperm whale and the sei whale have shown a good deal of seasonal variation, though never numerous, and the bottlenose and lesser piked whale have so far not been hunted, except in the case of the latter for human food. The vigorous slaughter of whales both in the sub-Antarctic and in the sub-tropics, for the one area reacts on the other, calls for universal legislation to protect the whales from early commercial extinction, and the industry, which is of world-wide economic importance, from having to be abandoned. The British Government, with the control of the world's best fisheries, is thoroughly alive to the situation, and an Inter-departmental Committee, under the direction of the Colonial Office, is at present devising a workable scheme for suitable legislation for the protection of the whales and for the welfare of the industry.