ago DISCOVERY REPORTS 



Canaries, except for a little intermittent steam whaling from Spanish Morocco. On the other hand, 

 the Azores are a ground where some calving takes place in high summer and where schools of nursing 

 cows with their calves may be encountered (p. 271). Moreover, the fishery has been an unrestricted 

 one when compared with sperm whaling in most other parts of the world where precise restrictions 

 are enforced on the minimum length at which whales may be killed. Against this general background 

 Table 28 (p. 281) and Table 32 and Fig. 18 may be reviewed. 



Table 32. Average lengths and percentages of sexually immature whales in the annual 



catches at Horta from 1944 to 1954 



Males 



Females 



1900 ° 5 19 IO l5 1920 1930 ' 35 1940 



Fig. 18. Annual catch of whales per whaleboat in the Azores from 1896 to 1954. 



1950 " 



It is a healthy sign in Table 28 that the annual sex ratios show no trend towards increase in the 

 female catch, either at Fayal (1939-54) or m tne Azores generally (1948-54). 



Table 32 shows the average lengths of whales in the annual catches at Horta, Fayal between 1944 

 and 1954. Before 9 July 1949 the length measurement did not include the length of the flukes, so the 

 period 1944-54 must be reviewed in two parts and not as a whole. Similarly, percentages of sexually 

 immature animals have only been calculated for whales treated on and after 9 July 1949, when all have 

 been measured in total length (see p. 241 and Table 31, footnote). The table summarizes all the length 

 data I have from the Azores, and, since the catches are small, the following comments are made with 

 reserve. Neither males nor females show any trend towards decrease in their average lengths over the 

 years. These average lengths are substantially greater than the mean lengths at which the sexes are 

 estimated to become sexually mature (9-6 m. or less for males and 8-8 m. for females, p. 262). Between 

 9 July 1949 and 1954 the immature animals of one sex appear to have been taxed no more heavily 

 than those of the other; the satisfactorily small proportions of immature animals fluctuate from year to 



