NOTES ON THE 



SOUTHERN RIGHT WHALE, 



EUBALAENA AU STRAUS 



By L. Harrison Matthews, m.a. 



(Plates XII-XVII) 



INTRODUCTION 



ZOOLOGISTS rarely have the opportunity of examining specimens of the Southern 

 Right whale nowadays, and in consequence it seems desirable to place on record 

 the few notes that have been collected on this species during the Discovery in- 

 vestigations. 



The Southern Right whale formerly occurred in very large numbers in the southern 

 oceans, and was particularly numerous in coastal waters of the southern part of the 

 African and American Continents, Australia and New Zealand, and of all the islands 

 between 30 and 60° S. It was the subject of a large fishery which, by the destruction 

 of the females and young on the breeding grounds, reduced the numbers of the species 

 to so low an ebb that its capture was abandoned. According to Harmer (1928) 193,522 

 Southern Right whales were captured from 1804 to 1817, an average of 13,823 annually. 

 Ommanney (1933) gives an interesting account of the old Right whale industry of New 

 Zealand. 



Townsend (1935) gives a chart showing the position of capture of 6262 Southern 

 Right whales by American whale ships between 1785 and 1913. The majority of the 

 positions lie between 30 and 50° S, with outliers up to 20 and 57° S. An inspection of 

 the chart shows that hunting started at the northern range of the species in June and 

 July and gradually worked southwards during the season, so that the highest southern 

 latitudes were hunted mostly in February and March. Most of the whaling took place 

 in the South Atlantic, Indian and South Pacific Oceans between latitudes 30 and 40° S 

 from October to January inclusive. It was not confined to coastal waters, so that the 

 plotted positions form a well-defined band right across the oceans of the world between 

 these latitudes. Later in the season, from January to March, hunting was carried on 

 farther south and was particularly intensive around the Crozets and Kerguelen. 



Harmer (1928) states that it seems probable that the several species of Southern Right 

 whale that have been described should all be referred to as a single species, which is 

 closely allied to, but possibly distinct from, the Biscay whale. The latter opinion is sup- 

 ported by the statement of Townsend (1935) that as far as the Right whales are con- 

 cerned the region between 30° N and 30° S represents a vacant tropical belt, and that 

 there were no records in the logs of the 1670 whaling voyages that he examined to in- 

 dicate any mingling of Northern and Southern Right whales. Allen (1908) gives a very 



