CONDITION OF THE STOCK UNDER WHALING 291 



year, but there is no discernible trend towards increase in the percentages immature over this period. 

 Table 32, so far as it goes, suggests that the stock is not suffering depletion; but the table needs to be 

 extended to include the length* data collected since 1946 by the Gremio dos Armadores da Pesca da 

 Baleia for all whales killed in all the islands. 



Regarding the archipelago as a whole, the only figures (apart from sex ratios) which are available to 

 me and which may be expected to suggest the effect of whaling are the aggregate catches of whales per 

 whaleboatf in successive years, shown graphically in Fig. 18 for the period 1896-1954. The graph 

 is of limited assistance because it takes no account of variations in the catching effort, \ which mainly 

 depends upon the demand for sperm oil. Fluctuations due to weather and oceanographical factors are 

 also to be expected. However, the general trend of the graph is a rising one until 1940: afterwards 

 there is a slight trend towards decline. The catch per whaleboat should continue to be reviewed year 

 by year. The Gremio dos Armadores da Pesca da Baleia preserves detailed returns which permit the 

 more reliable index of catch per whaleboat's day's work to be calculated. If the decline should persist 

 in spite of good demands for sperm oil, then the industry may have real cause for alarm. However, 

 considering Tables 28 and 32 and Fig. 18 together, and bearing in mind the limitations of the latter, 

 the general conclusion is perhaps that on present evidence the stock of whales round the Azores 

 does not yet appear to be overfished. In Madeira also where whales of the same stock may possibly 

 be involved (p. 285), there seems to have been no overfishing (Figueiredo, 1956). 



Conservation 



Meanwhile the Portuguese authorities are making provision for the conservation of the whale re- 

 sources of the Azores and Madeira and of continental Portugal. Since 1925 whaling regulations have 

 existed which gave protection to nursing cows and their calves, whales 'not adult' and of 'small 

 yield' (Gremio dos Armadores da Pesca da Baleia, 1925, Article 33). These have now been replaced 

 by new and comprehensive regulations which, in addition to protecting nursing and sucking whales, 

 also provide for length restrictions, for the duration of whaling seasons, for the limiting of catches in 

 any season or whaling area, and for other measures which may be considered necessary for preserving 

 the whale stocks (Ministerio da Marinha, Lisboa, 1954, Articles 71 and 72). At the present time 

 the actual restrictions and limits have yet to be defined. 



Elsewhere than the Azores and Madeira, whaling for sperm whales is conducted with steam whale- 

 catchers and there is generally enforced the International Whaling Commission's minimum length 

 restrictions on caught whales of 38 ft. in pelagic whaling and 35 ft. in shore whaling, intended to give 

 substantial protection to females. Reference to Table 2, p. 242, will show that a length restriction at 

 35 ft. would have reduced the total Fayal catch by 27-0% from 9 July 1949 to the end of 1954; males 

 would have been reduced by 15-1% and females by 5i - 5%. It is doubtful whether sufficient larger 

 whales could in practice have been selected to make up the deficit in oil production (p. 281). An 



* Possibly the measurements returned to the Gremio from other islands of the Azores, and from Madeira, refer to lengths 

 exclusive of the flukes (see p. 241). These are of limited value, and it would be helpful to check the matter to ensure that all 

 statistics refer to the total length, measured in a straight line from the tip of the snout to the notch of the flukes, a convention 

 universal in whaling elsewhere. 



j- The figures for whaleboats used in preparing Fig. 18 (from Clarke, 1954 a, Table 10) may not all be accurate for the 

 earlier years, for I learn that sometimes returns are believed to have been made, not of the numbers of whaleboats actually 

 employed, but of the maximum numbers permitted by the authorities. Such an error would reduce the catch per whaleboat 

 in any particular year. 



I Fluctuations in the sperm oil market, the increase in catching potential which resulted from the introduction of motor 

 boats for towing purposes, and other factors which affected the catching effort between 1896 and 1949, are discussed at 

 length in my account of the Azores whaling industry (1954 a, p. 300 ff.). 



