BEST; LANDED CATCH OF RIGHT WHALE 



to the logbooks of many of them. Incomplete voy- 

 ages comprised 9.67( of those listed by Starbuck 

 (1878) and Hegarty (1959). 



A "plus minus'" figure following any estimate 

 refers to one standard error. 



Values given for the coefficient of variation 

 (CV) have been obtained using variances calcu- 

 lated by the jackknife method (using one voyage 

 as the sampling unit). No attempt has been made 

 to calculate coefficients of variation for the final 

 estimates because 1) certain independent compo- 

 nents of the variance could not realistically be 

 assessed (e.g., variation in the proportion of a par- 

 ticular species in the total catch to that in the 

 Townsend sample from one 5-yr period to the 

 next) and 2) any biases in the data are likely to be 

 of greater magnitude than statistical errors re- 

 sulting from sampling variation. 



ESTLVIATES BASED ON PRODUCTION 



The number of baleen whales landed by Amer- 

 ican whalers as extracted by Townsend (1935) is 

 listed by five yearly period in Table 1. If 

 Townsend's data for a particular voyage covered 

 more than one calendar year, the catch would be 

 entered against the later date, as this was more 

 likely to correspond to the importation figures 

 used as a basis for reconstruction of the catch. A 

 total landed catch of 4,963 bowhead, 8,293 right, 



2,879 humpback, and 569 gray whales was 

 recorded for the period 1805-1914. 



Average Oil Yield Per Whale 



Right WTiales 



There were 147 right whale cruises producing 

 oil yields ranging from 22.5 to 219 barrels (Fig. 1). 

 As expected, the 17 voyages that took North 

 Pacific right whales had higher yields (83 to 219 

 barrels) than the 130 taking right whales else- 

 where (22.5 to 150 barrels), and so have been con- 

 sidered separately. 



There was no significant trend in oil yield per 

 whale during the period in which North Pacific 

 right whales were taken (6 = -1.15 ± 0.91, 

 t = 1.27, P > 0.20), so the overall average oil 

 yield per whale of 41,645/341 or 122 barrels 

 (CV = 0.063) has been used. This compares with 

 published averages of 125 barrels, males making 

 60 to 100 and females 100 to 250 barrels (Clark 

 1887a), and 130 barrels (Scammon 1874). 



There appeared to be a distinct decline in the oil 

 yield of right whales on other grounds after 1882 

 ib = -1.09 ± 0.30, t = 3.60, P < 0.02). Oil yields 

 after this date have therefore been calculated 

 from the least squares estimating equation fitted 

 to the data: 



y = 64.78 - 1.090 ix - 1882) 



Table 1. — Five-year compilation of whalebone whale catches from Townsend (1935). 



405 



