August, 191 3. The Irish Natiiralist. 145 
THE WHALE-FISHERY IN IRELAND. 
BY R. F. SCHARFF, PH.D., F.L.S. 
In the Report of the eighty-second meeting of the British 
Association, held at Dundee last year, appears a very 
interesting series of notes on the Belmullet whaling station 
in the west of Ireland. These notes form the report fur- 
nished by Mr. Burfield to the Committee appointed by the 
Association to investigate the biological problems incidental 
to the Belmullet whaling station.^ 
In a short article published two years ago,^ I indicated 
the number and kind of whales captured in 19 10 by the 
two Irish Whaling Companies. This was all the informa- 
tion I could obtain at the time. The Blacksod Whaling 
Company in 19 10 caught 55 whales. In 191 1, no less than 
63 individuals were procured. But Mr. Burfield supplies 
us with many other noteworthy particulars. 
Commercial. 
The sixty-three whales yielded 2,200 barrels of oil, or 
about 366 tons, the market price being about £23 per ton. 
W^e note that most of the oil goes to Glasgow, where it is 
apparently sold to manufacturers of explosives, who extract 
glycerine from it. Between six and seven tons of whale- 
bone were gathered from these whales. The price obtained 
was £45 per ton. Much of the whalebone is sent to Paris, 
where a considerable quantity appears to be used in the 
manufacture of silk fabrics in the form of fine threads. 
The residue from the meat and bones is dried and ground 
down, the mixture being sold as guano. The ground meat 
alone is exported to Norway for cattle food. Still further 
by-products, such as glue, may be obtained in future from 
this industry. 
^Report Brit. Assoc. (Dundee, 1912), pp. 145-186, 1913. 
Irish Naturalist, vol. xx., 191 1, p. 141. 
