MATERIAL AND SIZE RANGE 241 



MATERIAL 



Carcasses of 322 sperm whales were examined, or partially examined, at Horta between 1949 and 1954. 

 They comprised 148 male and 174 female whales (Table 1). Ovaries collected by Senhor Reis between 

 1950 and 1954 have been dissected in London. In 1953 and 1954 Senhor Reis collected testis material 

 to augment that taken in 1949. He has also contributed five small foetuses. During a visit to the Azores 

 in 1955 I was present on the platform at Horta when a remarkable specimen of the giant squid 

 Arckiteuthis, described on p. 257, was recovered intact from a whale's stomach. 



Table 1. Sperm whales examined at Horta, Fay al, from 1949 to 1954 



Catch statistics are from various sources. In 1949 I was able to copy unpublished whaling returns 

 from Fayal for 1939 to 1948. These provided monthly figures of sexed catches from 1939 to 1943, and 

 of dated catches, giving lengths besides sex, from 1944 onwards. Returns for 1948 were particularly 

 detailed and I have used those from Fayal, Flores and Cais do Pico in remarks on schooling and 

 movements from the coast. Since 1949 Senhor Reis has completed the statistics from Fayal by supplying 

 catch dates, sexes and lengths of those whales he did not examine anatomically. In this way detailed 

 statistics of 693 male and 358 females were made available. However, before I came to work at Porto 

 Pim on 9 July 1949 whales had always been measured from snout to tailstock only, although all 

 measurements at Fayal since that date have been the total length, that is, including the length of the 

 flukes. Accordingly it has been necessary when discussing average lengths of the catch by months 

 (p. 285) and by years (p. 290) to treat separately the statistics collected before and after 9 July 1949. 

 For the Azores generally the annual publication Estatistica das Pescas Maritimas no continente e ilhas 

 adjacentes gives catches and whaleboat numbers in each island for the period 1896-1950. Sexed 

 figures of annual catches (1948-54) and monthly catches (1949, 1951-2) at the Azores have been got 

 from statistics and graphs published in the Relatdrio e Contas of the Gremio dos Armadores da Pesca 

 da Baleia (see Clarke, 1954, p. 303). The Relatdrio e Contas also provides similar data for Madeira 

 (1951-4), although these catches are not sexed. 



For purposes of comparison there are introduced some of the data from 103 male sperm whales 

 examined on board Fl. F. Southern Harvester during the Antarctic season 1947-8. 



SIZE RANGE 



Size restrictions are not at present enforced in Portuguese whaling, and Table 2 and Fig. 2 show that 

 catches in the Azores cover a wide range of sizes, and include a substantial proportion of females. 

 Statistical data on females are now scarcely available to investigators whose material is drawn from 

 catches of sperm whales made under the existing regulations of the International Whaling Commis- 

 sion, since female whales are almost totally protected by the agreed minimum length. 



The present material includes measurements of new-born whales from the island of Pico. These 

 are discussed on p. 269 where it will be shown that sperm whales in the North Atlantic are born 



