FISHERIES FOR WHALES
Whales are the most important members of a large family of land
animals including also the seals, walrus, and porpoise, that have
gradually become adapted to live in the sea. They have acquired an
externally fish-like form, but in every other respect they retain the
characteristic features of mammalian structure. They are warm-blooded,
air-breathing quadrupeds, that suckle their young. In the whale, the
fore-limbs have become simple five-fingered flippers, while only
isolated, vestigial bones of the hind-limbs remain buried uselessly in
the body. Unlike fishes, the tail is set horizontally, thus enabling
the creature to rise easily to the surface to breathe. The warm-blooded
body is kept warm by a layer of fat placed immediately beneath the
skin, and varying in thickness from 8 to 20 ins., and known as the
blubber. The nostrils, instead of being situated at the end of the
snout, are placed far back at the apex of the head to form the blowhole.
Whales are divided into two well-marked groups, known as the whaleboned
and the toothed whales respectively, according to the particular form
of their dentition.
The most important of the whaleboned whales is the Greenland, or Arctic
Right, whale. It attains a length of upwards of 45 to 50 ft., and
is remarkable for the enormous extent of its head and mouth cavity.
The head extends for a third of the length of the body, so that the
mouth cavity may be as much as 18 ft. long, 12 ft. broad and 11 ft. in
height, the dimensions of a small chapel! The upper jaw is narrower
than the lower and arches backwards, thus increasing the actual
height of the mouth cavity and providing ample room for the blades of
whalebone with which the jaws are furnished in place of teeth. These
blades of whalebone number about 380, and range in length from 8 ft.
to, in exceptional cases, 12 ft. They are suspended in the mouth of the
whale like stalactites, set fairly close together, and, since the edges
of each blade are fringed with fine whalebone, the whole arrangement
forms a very efficient strainer. This enables the whale to feed upon
the plankton—or “krill,” as it is called by the whalers—and small
fish, e.g. herring and capelan. The whale fills his enormous cavern of
a mouth with water containing the floating food particles, and then,
by raising his tongue, slowly expels the water through the whalebone
sieve. The food particles are retained by the whalebone, and are then
licked off and swallowed.
The Greenland whale inhabits the Arctic seas north of latitude 54°N.
A closely related variety, the Bowhead whale, forms the basis of a
fishery in the Behring Sea.
The largest whales known are the so-called Rorqual whales. The name of
these whales is derived from the large number of longitudinal folds or
pleatings that form a characteristic feature of their throat. Rorqual
whales attain a length of from 80 to 85 ft. The head is relatively
small, and the long, slender body carries a distinct dorsal fin. The
whalebone is coarse and short. The Rorqual whales are the most abundant
and widely distributed of all whales. They are found in all open seas,
with the exception of those in the extreme Arctic and Antarctic regions.
The Southern Right whale, or Black whale, is found in the temperate
seas of both Northern and Southern hemispheres.
[Illustration: FIG. 20
A WHALE’S MOUTH
The carcass is ready for cutting up at a Shetland whaling station.]
Of the toothed whales, the most important is the Cachalot or Sperm
whale. It is chiefly captured in Southern seas, and is killed in
large numbers for the sake of the spermaceti and sperm oil that occur
in large quantities in its head cavity. Sperm and other toothed whales
feed upon fish and cuttlefish.
The breeding habits and migrations of the different species of whales
are at present little understood. During the summer, when the water in
the Polar circles swarms with certain varieties of pelagic crustacea,
the whales congregate in these regions and are then most profitably
hunted. At the end of the summer they appear to migrate towards warmer
water nearer the Equator. They bring forth their young in warm, shallow
water, and return to the whaling grounds in the spring. A young whale
calf may be as much as 20 ft. long at birth.
Whales were captured by the Norwegians over 1,000 years ago. In the
Middle Ages—from the ninth to the seventeenth centuries—the Basques
hunted the Black whale in the Bay of Biscay, and supplied Europe
with oil and whalebone. Towards the end of the sixteenth century,
as the Biscay whales became rare and more difficult to find, the
whalers ventured further afield, and in 1612 discovered the Greenland
whale. The Black or Biscay whale is now almost extinct, and there is
every likelihood that the Greenland Right whale will also soon be
exterminated. The capture of Sperm and Rorqual whales, although equally
important, is a comparatively modern development.
Modern whale fishing has become a very efficient art, owing largely
to the invention of the shot-harpoon by a Norwegian, Sven Foyn, in
1870. This harpoon is discharged from a gun from the deck of a fast
steamship. It penetrates the body of the whale in the vital region just
behind the flipper. The invention of this weapon has made the killing
of whales a matter of comparative ease and certainty. The inevitable
consequence of this is that the whales are being killed in such large
numbers that they are in danger of general extermination. Even before
the introduction of the shot-harpoon, whales were being destroyed at
an astonishing rate. Thus, during 40 years in the middle of the last
century, over 300,000 whales were captured by the United States whale
fisheries alone. The value of these whales was £65,000,000, so that
each whale realized on an average £216. Of recent years—before 1914—a
single large Greenland whale has realized as much as £900 for whalebone
and £300 for oil. At the present time, over 20,000 whales are killed
each year.
The old eighteenth century whaler of about 400 tons burden carried
about 30 officers and men, and was equipped for a three years’ voyage.
Each whaler carried six whale boats. These whaleboats were about 27 ft.
long and built sharp at each end. Each boat was furnished with mast and
sails, and was provided with two 200-fathom whale lines. When a whale
was sighted four of these boats, each manned by six men, started in
pursuit. The boats ranged themselves alongside the whale and a harpoon
was driven into it from each boat. The whale immediately dived to the
bottom of the sea and remained there sometimes for as long as forty
minutes. When he returned to the surface to breathe, more harpoons were
thrown and he dived again. Ultimately, owing to loss of blood, the
whale kept near the surface and was then dispatched by a lance thrust
behind the flipper into the vital parts.
The modern Greenland whaler is an iron vessel of about 500 tons. She
is fitted with auxiliary engines of 75 horse-power. She carries from
fifty to sixty hands and eight whaleboats. She is fitted with tanks for
250 tons of oil. Before the war she would cost about £17,500 to build
and £500 a month to maintain. Each whaleboat carries a harpoon gun in
order to make sure of the first harpoon getting a good hold.
In Rorqual fishing, off Newfoundland, the harpoon is tipped with a bomb
and time fuse. This explosive harpoon is discharged into the whale from
the deck of the whaler—a fast steamer—and explodes with fatal effect.
The chief whale fisheries are carried on off Greenland for the
Greenland whale, off the coast of Newfoundland for Rorquals. There
is the Norwegian bottlenosed-whale fishery around Iceland, and the
American Bowhead-whale fishery in the Behring Sea. In Southern Seas
the Humpback, Fin whale, and Blue whale (Sibbald’s Rorqual) constitute
an overwhelming majority of the whales captured. The Right whale and
the Sperm whale, although captured in relatively small numbers, are
individually more valuable. Other smaller species, e.g. the Sei whale
(Rudolph’s Rorqual), the lesser Rorqual and the Killer or Grampus, are
also found in large numbers in the Antarctic.
When the whale has been killed it is either made fast alongside the
whaler and cut up, or it is towed ashore to a “factory” to be cut up
and stripped. The blubber is stripped off, cut up into small pieces,
and boiled down with water to separate the oil. The yield of oil varies
for different species, as shown in Table II. The whalebone is removed
and, if a Sperm whale, the oil is removed from the skull cavity with
buckets. An average large Sperm whale will yield from 2-1/2 to 3 tons
of Sperm oil.
TABLE II
Average Yield of Oil in Barrels
Species of Whale. (6 Barrels = 1 Ton).
Right 60 to 70
Blue 70 „ 80
Fin 35 „ 50
Sei 10 „ 15
Humpback 25 „ 35
Sperm 60 „ 65
Whale oil is marketed in five grades: Nos. 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4. Nos. 0
and 1 are made entirely from blubber; No. 2 from tongues and kidney fat
and from the residue of the blubber boilings; No. 3 is made from the
flesh and bones, and No. 4 from refuse. The different grades contain
progressively from 1/2 to 1 per cent water and dirt, and from 2 to 30
per cent free fatty acid.
Grades 0, 1 and 2 of whale oil are used in the manufacture of soap,
glycerine being obtained from it as a by-product. In its natural
condition the oil is soft, and has to be “hardened” before it can be
used for soap making. The hardened whale oil is white, odourless and
tasteless, and is an excellent substitute for tallow. In this condition
it is also used as a substitute for lard and, to a small extent, is
used in making margarine.
Grades 3 and 4 are used in the manufacture of lubricating greases.
Whale oil alone is used for shafting and machinery bearings. When mixed
with mineral oil, it is used for looms, spindles and textile machinery.
Whale oil is also used as an illuminant, for currying leather, and in
making chamois leather, for batching flax and other vegetable fibres,
and in oiling wool for combing.
In 1913, the world’s annual catch of whale oil had reached 800,000
barrels. During the war the supply was considerably less, for example
in 1917 it was only 358,000 barrels.
=Whalebone.= Whalebone from the mouths of the Right or whaleboned
whales is in considerable demand among dressmakers and milliners.
Its principal use is in the brush trade, chiefly in making brushes
for mechanical purposes. It is prepared for use by being boiled in
water for about 12 hours until it is quite soft. It is then cut into
strips or bristles or filaments, according to the use for which it is
intended. It is light, flexible, tough and fibrous.
=Sperm Oil.= Sperm oil is really a liquid wax. It is an excellent
lubricant—particularly for rapidly moving machinery, e.g. spinning
spindles, or for delicate machinery such as watches. It does not become
gummy or rancid, and retains its viscosity at high temperatures. It has
no corrosive action.
When cooled to low temperatures, it deposits a solid
wax—spermaceti—which is used in the manufacture of high grade candles.
Sperm oil is also used for dressing leather, in oil tempering steel,
and as an illuminant.
=Ambergris.= Ambergris is a solid, fatty, inflammable substance, dull
grey in colour, which occurs as a concretion in the intestines of sperm
whales. It is generally found floating in the sea or on the shore. It
is used in the perfume industry mixed with other perfumes.
The development of the whaling industry in the south seas has led to
the industrial development of previously uninhabited islands. On South
Georgia, which was previously uninhabited, actual industrial villages
have been established. A church has been erected, and there are three
slips for cutting up the whales, two guano factories, reservoirs
for the oil, and houses for the staff. This Antarctic island has a
floating population of many hundreds of sailors and workmen. A doctor
resides there during the whaling season and, since 1908, the British
Government has established a post office in this polar land. In 1922
the eyes of all the world were turned to this far-away land, the Gate
of the Antarctic, as the body of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the hero of the
Antarctic, was laid to rest there.