482 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



and found them to be crowded with small crustaceans resembling Munida : one con- 

 tained small fish bones in addition.. . .1 examined the stomachs of our captures and in 

 every case found them to contain the reddish mass which I have above attributed to 

 partially digested Munida. Since the foregoing was written Prof. Benham writes to me, 

 'the Shags that were opened had the stomach filled with the crustacean Munida 

 subrugosa'". 



Young (1925) says, "When the shoals are on the surface [of Otago Harbour] the 

 stomachs of most of the fish caught are found to be crammed with whale feed". 



LOBSTER-KRILL AS WHALE FOOD 



M.gregaria is the species to which the term " lobster-krill " is mainly applied, though, 

 as is shown above, Pleuroncodes planipes is also probably included under this name. In 

 New Zealand the Grimothea stage of M. gregaria is known as "whale-feed". Chilton 

 in 1904 appears to be the first to print this name, and Anderton in 1906 and Young in 

 1925 use the same expression. 



In 1926 Sir Sidney Harmer received from the New Zealand Government Offices in 

 London a series of photographs of whaling in New Zealand waters. Copies of seven of 

 the photographs are now in the British Museum. These show phases of the chase and 

 capture of Humpback whales from motor launches in the waters of Cook Strait. The 

 most interesting photograph, however, is of ten specimens of the Grimothea stage of 

 M.gregaria. This photograph is labelled " Euphausians or Plankton. Alive whale's feed 

 on a plate (so called), like small lobsters and red. The sea is red for acres and hump- 

 back whale open their mouths and swim through". The photograph shows quite 

 clearly and unmistakably that the whale-feed is the Grimothea stage of M. gregaria. 

 Mr Drew, Publicity Officer at the New Zealand Government Offices, kindly informed 

 the writer that the whaling station at which these photographs were taken is known as 

 Te Awite and is situated in the South Island on the shore of Tory Channel which 

 connects Queen Charlotte Sound with Cook Strait. He has himself seen the sea 

 coloured red by "whale-feed" over large areas in Cook Strait, and he understands that 

 similar shoals are met with on the whaling grounds off Cape Brett, Bay of Isles, on the 

 east coast of the North Island. 



It is clear, then, that the Grimothea stage of M. gregaria forms the food of the Hump- 

 back whale in New Zealand waters, at least on occasion. From the great abundance of 

 the shoals of " whale-feed " it appears to be probable that their occurrence may have 

 an important bearing on the migrations of the Humpback whale in the New Zealand 

 seas. 



I am able to record that other species of whale also feed upon the shoals of M. gregaria, 

 both in the adult and Grimothea stages. A whaling station operated from 1908 to 19 16 

 at New Island in the Falkland Islands, where Grimothea is known to be plentiful at 

 times. The Grimothea has features so distinctive that it needs no scientific training to 

 recognize it as different from the usual Euphausian krill eaten by whales, and conse- 

 quently the writer sought information on the point. However, as the station at New 



