38 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



bution and movements of the whales themselves, of much indeed that is of major concern to those 

 who engage in whaling. However wise, far-sighted, or effective the provisions of the international 

 control may have been there can be few who would say that the Antarctic whale fishery has yet been 

 established on a permanent footing. There must be many in fact who would doubt it. I take this 

 opportunity, therefore, to express the hope that, purely academic as much of the information presented 

 here must necessarily be, some of it at least, when the existing whaling regulations come annually 

 under review, may provide some possible matter for reflection in the deliberations that ensue. For 

 today, with a rapidly expanding world population, millions, hitherto backward and dispossessed, 

 seeking everywhere for mounting quantities of food and raw materials, the prospect of the decline alone, 

 not to mention the destruction, of the vital produce of Antarctica can hardly be contemplated without 

 the gravest concern. As Morgan (1956), in his recent survey of world fisheries observes, the earth's 

 population, already in 1954 standing at 2500 millions, may well, if it maintains its present rate of 

 increase, reach some 4000 millions by 1980, the need to find food for this growing press of humanity 

 presenting perhaps the most searching problem the world has ever had to face. Indeed by a.d. 2100 

 Parkes (1955) envisages a horde of 10,000 millions averaging out at 200 to the square mile over the 

 whole earth's surface, including the Antarctic continent. 



The mounting impact of whaling upon the Antarctic whales has for long been recognized as a 

 serious problem, now perhaps reaching alarming proportions. An early warning of its impending 

 consequences was uttered by Hjort, Jahn and Ottestad in an important paper published in 1933, and 

 already in 1937 we find Laurie calling attention to the increasing plight of the great blue whales upon 

 which for long the brunt of the onslaught had been falling. ' The stock ', he wrote, ' is already seriously 

 depleted and further hunting on the same scale bids fair to make Blue whales so scarce that they will 

 cease to be a source of profit to the industry and so diminished in numbers that the stock even if 

 completely protected may take many years to recover.' More recently Ruud (1955) called attention to 

 the overfishing of fin whales that seemed to be taking place between 1946 and 1953 and Mackintosh 

 (1959a, 19596), summing up the position today, notes that it is generally admitted that the stock of 

 blue whales at least has been severely reduced^ and that while there have been certain indications of a 

 decline, now steepening, in the fin whale population,^ doubts have been expressed as to whether it is 

 actually taking place, there being as yet no final proof that it is. Ottestad (1956) takes a more serious 

 view, computing that if the present day rate of killing is not substantially reduced, the Antarctic fin 

 whale population will be so depleted by 1962 that an annual catch of as little as 10,000 would be 

 seriously imperilling its existence. And this he says is taking an optimistic view. Continued concern 

 for the condition of the blue and fin whale stocks was expressed also by the Scientific Sub-Committee 

 of the International Commission on Whaling at its annual meeting in 1959. The situation, however, is 

 constantly kept under review and so if wisdom is to prevail there may yet be time for the nations 

 concerned, as Dawbin (1952) in his recent survey of the fishery has said, to bring about a balance 

 between the 'killing and the replacement rate of the whale populations', or as Wheeler (1934) wrote 



' In the season 1932-3, 18,624 blue whales were killed, 807% of the total blue and fin whale catch. In the season just 

 concluded (1958-9) the same percentage involving only 1191 blue whales was down to 4-4 {Norsk Hvalfangst-Tidende, 1959, 

 no. 9). 



* Chittleborough (1959c, i960) has just called attention to the continued decline that appears to be taking place in the winter 

 population of humpbacks hunted west of Australia. Dawbin (1960a), however, notes that the absence of certain adverse 

 trends in catch-statistics for the northbound population of humpbacks passing New Zealand between 1947 and 1958 suggests 

 that the stock in Australian-New Zealand Antarctic waters is still in a relatively sound condition. He does call attention, 

 however (Dawbin, 19606), to certain possible adverse trends shown by the New Zealand catch in 1959, yet still does not seem 

 to think they give cause for alarm, noting that a distinct rise in percentage of immature animals shot that year might be 

 due to intensity of hunting early in the season, gunner selection and other factors. 



