CHAPTER XXVI
THE PASSING OF THE WHALE
The world hunt for the whale began a thousand years ago in the Bay of Biscay and it bids fair to end ere the close of the twentieth century.
After the extermination of the North Atlantic right whale on the coast of Spain, the hunters pushed northward to Finland and Iceland, and it is even possible that whalers visited Newfoundland long before Columbus saw American shores.
The relentless warfare to which the right whale was subjected for hundreds of years culminated in the sixteenth century, and only stopped short of actual extermination through the discovery, in the far north, of its larger and more valuable relative, the bowhead. Then the right whale dropped from sight, supposedly being extinct, and although it appeared again a hundred years later, it has never recovered from the effects of its early persecution.
The capture of the bowhead began in 1612 in the open waters between Spitzbergen and Greenland, and soon extended to Davis Strait and Baffin Bay. After two hundred years of unceasing pursuit this whale was driven to the remotest parts of the Arctic Ocean and was so nearly exterminated that now, when northern whaling has practically ended, its recovery in numbers is exceedingly doubtful.
All this happened before the modern harpoon-gun diverted attention to the fin whales which during the last half-century have been so ruthlessly butchered by means of every invention at man’s disposal that their commercial extinction is inevitable within a very few decades if the slaughter is continued unchecked.
By commercial extinction I mean decrease in the number of whales to the point when their pursuit will no longer be profitable. While this may not mean total extermination because of the great expense connected with the modern methods of capture and handling the carcasses, yet the whales will have been so reduced in numbers that they can never again become abundant. Enormous and highly specialized animals are usually slow breeders and especially liable to extinction, and since it has taken millions of years to evolve the whale, it is extremely unlikely that such evolution can again be duplicated upon this planet.
Even if we deny whales the right to live, and disregard the scientific importance of this marvelously specialized group of mammals, it is apparent that, reduced to a sordid standard, our problem demands immediate attention. It is of the utmost importance that while there is yet time the governments of the world should realize that if proper legislation is enacted to regulate the killing of whales, a great and lucrative industry can not only be conducted profitably in the present, but preserved for the future.
The history of modern whaling in Newfoundland, where American shore stations were first established, is an excellent example of what will happen sooner or later in every other part of the world if commercial greed remains unchecked. In 1908, Dr. Frederic A. Lucas, who from personal investigation is one of the best informed students of the subject, published a carefully prepared account of the Newfoundland fishery and I cannot do better than quote here a portion of his remarks. Dr. Lucas says:
Before 1903 we have no data as to the number of whales taken along the coast of Newfoundland and can only say that the value of whale products rose successively from $1,581, in 1898, to $36,428, in 1900, and $125,287 in 1902. Making a rough estimate, based on the value of the whale fishery, one may say that this represents not less than 350 whales, more probably about 500, since prior to 1902 the waste was very great. The first whaling station in which modern methods were adopted was established in 1897 and its success was so great that in 1903 four others had been erected and three more planned, although but three steamers were then employed. R. T. McGrath in the Report of the Newfoundland Department of Fisheries for 1903 gave it as his opinion that no more applications for factories should be granted for some years to come, saying, “Two factories are about to be erected, one at Trinity and one at Bonavista—during the coming year. This will make eight factories in all, viz., Balena, Aquaforte, Snook’s Arm, Chalem Bay, Cape Broyle, Bonavista and Trinity. In my opinion no further applications should be granted for some years. If licenses are given without restriction, it will result in complete depletion of this industry within a short time; whilst if judiciously dealt with, it will be a profitable source of revenue, and a great assistance to the laboring people of the colony for many years to come.” This advice, however, was not heeded, the only restriction placed on whaling being that stations should not be nearer one another than twenty miles and that but one steamer should be employed. These restrictions were practically of no avail, as one steamer was all that could then be employed to advantage and a run of twenty miles is nothing to a 12-knot vessel. So whaling stations rapidly multiplied until by 1905 eighteen were in operation, occupying all the more favorable locations about Newfoundland, Labrador and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and fifteen steamers were employed. The effects of this over-multiplication were felt at once, and while in 1903 three steamers took 858 whales, or an average of 286 each, in 1905 fifteen steamers took but 892 whales, or an average of only 59 a vessel.
Thus in ten years more than 4,000 whales have been captured in the immediate vicinity of Newfoundland. The effect was disastrous and caused the ruin of the smaller companies, the chief sufferers being the smaller shareholders who had invested their entire capital.
Since then the number of stations in operation has been reduced and some of the steamers sold, not more than ten stations being operated in any one year and only six or eight of these at one time. Still the catch has steadily decreased and in 1913 only two hundred and twenty-two whales were taken.
One of the arguments in favor of indiscriminate whaling has been the theory that whales had the whole world to draw upon and that the depletion in any one locality would soon be supplied by overflow from another. To a slight extent this may be true, for there seems some reason to believe that whales do now and then pass from the Pacific to the Atlantic,[20] but on the whole whales are restricted in their range as other animals[21] and extermination in one place means extermination in that locality for all time. Another fallacy was the belief that the supply of whales was practically limitless and that one might “slay and slay and slay” continuously. There is not a more mischievous term than “inexhaustible supply,” and certainly none more untrue. So we see our inexhaustible forests on the verge of disappearing, our inexhaustible supplies of coal and oil daily growing less, and the end of the inexhaustible supply of whales in sight. Man is recklessly spending the capital Nature has been centuries in accumulating and the time will come when his drafts will no longer be honored. It matters not whether the vessel is a bucket or an ocean, one can only take out as much water as it contains and where all is outgo and no income, it is merely a question of time when one or the other will be emptied.[22]
Thus, about fifteen years after the first modern station was erected in Newfoundland shore whaling practically ended, for today only six or eight factories are in operation and have a combined yearly catch of about two hundred whales, instead of over one thousand two hundred as in 1904.
With Newfoundland’s history in mind we may turn to the American Pacific where, because of different conditions, the story has been only partially duplicated. From Mexico to Bering Sea there is an enormous extent of coast line where the feeding grounds lie close to shore and sustain a proportionally greater number of whales than in the restricted area of Newfoundland and Labrador. Here, as in every other ocean, the result of persistent persecution will be inevitable, but under such conditions it will be longer deferred.
There is a slow but constant yearly decrease in the number of whales taken along the Pacific Coast, and yet if stations are not concentrated, undoubtedly the industry will continue to be a profitable one for several years to come.
Near the islands of the sub-Antarctic, conditions are more favorable for shore whaling than in any other portion of the world. The waters of these seas are especially productive of the shrimp (Euphausia) and other plankton upon which most of the large Cetacea feed, and thousands of fin whales are present where there are dozens in other oceans. This great abundance of marine life caused the development of the floating factories which until recently operated without restriction and are the most pernicious agencies of modern invention in the wholesale destruction of whales.
A floating factory consists of a large steamer equipped with blubber try works and can be moved about from place to place as the feeding grounds change. Four or five vessels hunt from each floating factory, supplying it with whales from which the blubber is stripped off and tried out on board the large ship.
When operations first began in the sub-Antarctic, whales could be killed so easily that in some instances only the thickest portions of the blubber were taken and the remainder left upon the carcass to be turned adrift; thus but a fractional portion of the value of each whale was secured while thousands of animals were killed. A blue whale eighty feet long, treated in this manner, would probably not be worth more than $40 or $50, while in Japan, where the by-products are highly utilized, a specimen of equal size would have a value of $4,000.
Very fortunately at South Georgia, one of the largest whaling centers of the far southern waters, the British Government realized that such pernicious activities could only result in the quick ruin of the industry, and enacted laws which compelled the floating factories to use the carcasses as well as the blubber.
A skeleton of a finback whale in the American Museum of Natural History.
While to the early hunters on the South Atlantic grounds the supply of whales must have seemed inexhaustible, yet the concentrated activity of the last ten years has caused alarming inroads into the great herds which fed along the edge of the Antarctic Circle.
On South Georgia alone there are at the present time eight stations with headquarters in Norway, Great Britain, and Argentina, and the South Shetlands, Falkland, South Orkney, and Kerguelen Islands are the homes of many floating factories and permanent stations.
It is true that because of its remoteness the cost of whaling operations in the far south is very heavy and that the slaughter will cease automatically when the profits are no longer commensurate with the investment, but owing to the extraordinary concentration of whales on these feeding grounds, before that time comes the ravages will have been so great that probably the animals can never again attain a firm hold upon life.
The excessive slaughter in the South Atlantic has a direct effect upon the industry in other parts of the world, for it is very probable that the fin whales go northward from the Antarctic waters into both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
In Japan it will be a national catastrophe when whaling ceases, because the diet of the ordinary native would consist of little besides rice, fish, and vegetables were it not for the thousands of tons of whale meat which are distributed fresh or canned to almost the entire Empire, and which furnish a healthful and palatable food at a low cost.
Since labor is very cheap in Japan and especially because each whale is worth an extraordinary amount for food, operations can be carried on long after they would be unprofitable in almost any other part of the world; thus the extermination of whales will undoubtedly be very nearly complete in the Island Empire.
The flesh of the humpback is most highly esteemed for food by the Japanese and this species was consequently very ardently pursued. Although most abundant of all a few years ago, humpbacks are now so rare that only twenty-five or thirty are taken yearly in all Japan. The blue whales are disappearing almost as rapidly and it will not be long before the Japanese will have to depend entirely upon the finback gray, and sei whales.
Unfortunately there appears to be a universal belief that shore whaling is a short-lived industry and that everyone must get for himself the greatest possible share of the profits without regard for the future. It is commercial greed in its worst form, because in the mad scramble for quick money, such pernicious operations as those of the floating factory are inaugurated, and but a small part of the real value of each whale is secured after its life has been taken.
My plea is for proper legislation which will force the industry to develop its great untouched possibilities and save it for the future while yielding a reasonable profit during the present.
But it must be intelligent legislation, for “blanket” laws are worse than none at all. Conditions vary with every place where shore whaling is conducted and laws which were excellent for Newfoundland would be absurd on the coast of British Columbia.
Personally I cannot see how the much-discussed international legislation can be of assistance. It appears to me that local laws are what is needed.
Experts should be employed to study carefully conditions in each locality in order that recommendations may be intelligent. I know of one government which actually declared a closed season upon whales, during which the animals could not be hunted, obviously to allow the females to bring forth their young. Since the fin whales breed irregularly throughout the year, such bungling attempts at legislation are worse than useless and serve only to expose the ignorance of those who make them.
In not a single country of the globe where shore whaling is being carried on today are there intelligent laws to insure for the future an industry which is yielding millions of dollars every year, or to save from extermination the animals which, of all others on the land or in the sea, have taken the most important place in the history of the world.