Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Blaðsíða 121

THE INTERNATIONAL WHALING SITUATION
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the supply of water, and on the practice of drawing up the
whale by means of a slipway on to deck and treating it there —
independently of nearly every kind of weather. Previously the
whale was flayed alongside the vessel, in which case it was
obviously preferable to have the factory ship lying snugly at
anchor in a sheltered harbour.
Another reason why this pelagic form of whaling became
effective was that by means of wireless telegraphy the mother-
ship of the expedition could keep in constant touch with the
catchers during the operations in the open sea.
The season 1926/27 represented another development in inter-
national whaling. In that season ice-whaling commenced. On
October 24th, 1926, three South Shetland expeditions began to
hunt whales along the ice-barrier, whilst waiting for the ice to
break up and give them access to the usual harbours in the South
Shetlands. The three factory ships made splendid catches off and
in the ice, and Norwegians began to realize that whales could be
found at other places in the Antarctic than the west Antarctic
archipelago and in the Ross Sea, where they had, as stated, com-
menced hunting in 1923.
The whalers had now found that pelagic whaling from a
technical point of view was perfectly practicable, and even of-
fered the advantage that the whale migrations and their own
catchers could be followed, and thus fresher whales, and con-
sequently a higher quality of oil, be obtained, and in the years
1926 to 1929 it was discovered that whales were to be had in
great quantities along nearly two-thirds of the coast round the
South Pole cap, namely from about 6o° west longitude to about
180 east latitude.
There were started 12 new companies for pelagic whaling
in the Antarctic in the years 1925 to 1930. Of these one was
British and one Danish, but the rest were Norwegian. The use of
larger and larger floating factories also began, and the capacity
of the factory ships increased to such an extent that they could
produce far more oil than could be carried home on one keel.
The surplus oil was transported to Europe in tank-boats.
Year:
Number of whales shot
in the Antarctic:
Number of barrels oil:
1926/27 12,625 872,362
1927/28 13,775 1,037,392
1928/29 20,341 1,631,340
1929/30 30,167 2,546,759
1930/31 40,201 3,608,348
Le Nord I
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