Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Side 127

THE INTERNATIONAL WHALING SITUATION 119
the catch; in 1936/37 there were as many as 33.9 per cent. In the
course of the same year the average length of the Blue whales
killed has fallen from 84.03 feet to 77.49 feet.
In the same season 1936/37 it was clear that Germany, Japan
and U.S.A. would go in for whaling in earnest. Under these
circumstances it became a matter of urgent necessity to get an
international whaling regulation as soon as possible, in order that
the previous years5 efforts to preserve this unique source of raw
stuffs for the world’s market should not be thrown away.
The International Whaling Conference in London last year
laid the foundation for a future regulation of whaling. The most
important of the regulations fixed at the conference were those
requiring the observance of close seasons, the prohibition against
the taking of female whales with calves or suckling whales, or of
whales below a certain minimum size, prescribed for each species,
the requirement that full commercial use shall be made of each
part of all the whales taken, the restriction of the period within
which the whales, from the time of capture, must be treated on
a factory ship or at a land station as the case may be. It was
prohibited to use a factory ship or catcher attached thereto for
the purpose of taking or handling Baleen whales in any of the
following areas, viz.:
(a) in the Atlantic Ocean north of lat. 400 South and in the
Davis Strait, Baffin Bay and Greenland Sea;
(b) in the Pacific Ocean east of long. 1500 West between lat.
400 South and 350 North;
(c) in the Pacific Ocean west of long. 1500 West between lat.
400 South and 200 North;
(d) in the Indian Ocean north of lat. 400 South.
In the Final Act which accompanied the International Agree-
ment, the conference indicated a number of other questions which
ought to be taken up for consideration at the next conference.
It was specially felt that sooner or later it would be necessary
to obtain a limitation of the catching material permissible for
employment in international whaling.
The course of developments in the season 1937/38 shows also
that it was unfortunate that no such provision was embodied in
the agreement. In spite of the voluntary restriction which certain
Norwegian and British companies imposed on themselves, there
took part in the Antarctic operations in 1937/38 31 floating