FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 85, NO. 3 



Table 4. — Numbers of baleen whales landed by U.S. whalers. 1805-1909, based on oil production 

 up to 1879 and whalebone production thereafter. 



the whale oil production of the voyages listed by 

 Townsend was diluted to a greater or lesser ex- 

 tent with seal and other oil than the total produc- 

 tion. 



The catch-per-voyage analysis attempts to 

 avoid the problems created by the incomplete re- 

 porting of the products of a voyage, and (at least 

 partially) those arising from the dilution of whale 

 oil with seal, walrus, and other oils. 



In order to make some further correction for 

 voyages that were entirely devoted to sealing, all 

 voyages recorded as returning only elephant oil, 

 or as "skinning voyages", or voyages labelled as 

 sealing by Starbuck (1878) and Hegarty (1959) 

 have been excluded. In addition, all voyages from 

 the Connecticut ports of New London, Stonington, 

 or Mystic that were recorded as being bound for S. 

 Shetlands, Desolation, Falklands, Hurds Island, 

 or Crozettes and that returned with whale oil but 

 no whalebone have been omitted on the grounds 

 that these were probably sealing voyages. This 

 has resulted in a total omission of 141 voyages 

 between 1804 and 1921. 



Obviously this figure does not include all voy- 

 ages on which seal oil was taken, as many seals 

 were taken on combination sealing/whaling voy- 

 ages. Between 1840 and 1890, an average 25*^ of 

 "whaling" vessels leaving New London are said to 

 have visited Desolation or Heard Island for ele- 

 phant seals (Busch 1985), but of 110 voyages de- 

 parting to these islands from New London during 



this period, 45 were reported as bringing back 

 sperm oil and/or whalebone as well as "whale" oil 

 (Starbuck 1878; Hegarty 1959). 



Starbuck (1878) and Hegarty (1959) also listed 

 a number of mixed voyages from other ports in 

 which small amounts of whale oil were landed but 

 no whalebone. While some of these might repre- 

 sent voyages on which whales with inferior 

 whalebone (such as humpback or gray whales) 

 were taken, other such small consignments of 

 whale oil might have originated from seals or 

 from "blackfish" (pilot whales Globicephala spp.). 

 Pilot whales were sometimes taken by whalemen 

 to supplement their cargoes, the oil being rated as 

 common whale oil. Clark (1887b) listed 36 voy- 

 ages on which from 2 to 200 barrels of blackfish 

 oil was brought home, 33 (91.7%) of them bring- 

 ing back 100 barrels or less. To investigate this 

 further, mixed voyages on which 100 barrels or 

 less of whale oil but no whalebone were landed 

 (from Starbuck and Hegarty) were compared with 

 the catch composition of the same voyages as 

 given by Townsend (1935). Of 153 such voyages, 

 baleen whales were reported as being taken on 55 

 (35.9'^ ) voyages, with the proportion approaching 

 1009^ as the amount of whale oil approached 100 

 barrels (Table 5). Consequently for each 5-yr time 

 period the number of mixed voyages reporting 

 100 barrels or less of whale oil but no whalebone 

 was adjusted by the proportion of such voyages in 

 Townsend's sample that were reported as taking 



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