Whales have been extensively described both in popular and scientific
writings. However, their story is by no means complete or correct. It
will be many years before all the information can be obtained on these
animals which range the wide oceans where man must study them under
great disadvantage. Until man has the underwater mobility and
maneuverability of whales, he will have to be content with surmise and
interpretations based on limited observations.
There is a great deal known about the anatomy and fine structure of
whales. You can certainly admire the work of the early anatomists who
persevered in dissecting the partially decomposed carcasses of stranded
specimens. What a contrast to the opportunity afforded now to the
anatomist who need merely be present on a whaling ship station to
receive any part which he wishes to examine. It takes the whaling
station 4 to 6 hours to butcher a whale completely.
[Illustration: Close-up of a "spyhopping" gray whale. _Courtesy
Scripps Institute of Oceanography._]
Naturally, the whales which are currently the object of research are
those which are commercially important and available. The California
gray whale which would be convenient for study is no longer taken
commercially. Permission would have to be obtained from the
International Whaling Commission to secure even a single specimen, and a
scientist could not easily obtain a specimen without the assistance of
whalers. Fortunately, we know a great deal about the species as a result
of an extensive monograph prepared nearly 100 years ago by Captain C. M.
Scammon, who was among the first to whale this animal commercially.
Professor Edward D. Cope described the species, giving it the name
_Rhachianectes glauca_, after he examined a skeleton which had been
shipped to him at the Philadelphia Museum.
Roy Chapman Andrews of the American Museum prepared the first detailed
description of a living specimen which he found at a Korean whaling
station. At the time of his report the species had not been seen for
many years and had been believed extinct. More recently Russian
scientists published considerable material which they had obtained from
Russian whalers who had continued to take an occasional specimen during
the thirties of this century.
They made a detailed study of the food of this whale, and they clearly
showed that the herd which summered in the Sea of Okhotsk and wintered
off Korea did not intermingle with the Siberian herd which wintered in
the lagoons off Lower California. For the last 20 years or so, the
species has enjoyed protection from whaling on an international basis.
Since 1947 whaling scientists of the Canadian and American fishery
agencies have published data principally on the recovery of the
California herd, and to a degree have filled in some of the gaps in its
life history. There is still a great deal to be learned, and it may be
that some of the published observations will have to be revised or
discarded. It is likely that the California gray whale is quite similar
in many of its biological details to those which appear to be general in
the commercially important species.