SOUTHERN WHALING CENTRES 233 



compare the catches in higher latitudes where whaling is conducted in the southern 

 summer. 



Kerguelen Island. Kerguelen Island and the Falklands are intermediate between the 

 temperate regions of winter whaling and the great summer whaling grounds of the 

 Antarctic. Operations appear, however, to have been conducted in the summer months. 

 Very little whaling has been done at Kerguelen Island. The International Statistics 

 (no. 11, pp. 13, 27) give returns only for the season 1909-10 when Humpbacks accounted 

 for 118 in a total catch of 123. 



Falkland Islands. At New Island, West Falkland, a land station was at work from 

 1909-10 to 1914-15. The whaling was only on a small scale, but it is interesting to note 

 that Sei whales were commoner than other species. A few Fins and Humpbacks were 

 also taken. It is curious that the catches should be so different from those at Kerguelen. 



South Georgia. So far as the relative abundance of the different species is concerned, 

 South Georgia might be taken together with the rest of the Antarctic whaling grounds, 

 but it is treated separately in the International Statistics, and it does differ in that the 

 whales taken in its vicinity are generally on passage towards higher latitudes, or (some- 

 times perhaps in late summer) on their way north to warmer regions. At South Georgia 

 whaling has been conducted continuously since the 1904-5 season, and for many years 

 it was the most important centre in the world. In recent years, however, it has been 

 overshadowed by the Antarctic pelagic industry, and the number of stations has been 

 reduced from five or six to two. As to the catches it is enough at this stage to say that 

 before 191 2 the majority of whales taken were Humpbacks, and since that year Blue and 

 Fin whales have been predominant. (See International Whaling Statistics, no. 11, 

 pp. 12 and 26, and no. xiv, p. 12.) 



Antarctic. The figures under this heading in Table 10 include the catches of the 

 factory ships moored at the South Shetland Islands and South Orkney Islands as well 

 as those of the pelagic factory ships. It appears that whaling at the South Shetlands was 

 conducted from 1905-6 to 1930-1. At the South Orkneys it began in 1911-12. The 

 Statistics quote no figures for the period 1915-22, but catches are shown again from 

 1922-3 to 1928-9. It is not quite clear when whaling by moored factory ship ended at 

 the South Orkneys, for after 1929 the catches there are not distinguished in the statistics 

 from those of the pelagic fleet, but pelagic factory ships continued to work from time to 

 time in the vicinity of these islands. Up to the season 1927-8 factory ships at the 

 Shetlands and Orkneys accounted for the greater part of the catches shown in Table 10, 

 but after that season these local centres were superseded by pelagic whaling. Although 

 whaling began at the Shetlands in 1905-6 the figures for the first four seasons are not 

 given in Table 10 because the statistics include whales taken from the Falkland Islands 

 and South American coasts. It should also be noted that considerable numbers of Sei 

 whales are listed in the seasons 1925-6 to 1928-9, and since this is a species not often 

 found in high latitudes it may be that some of the whales included here and possibly in 

 1934-5 were also caught in more temperate regions, perhaps at the beginning or end of 

 the season ; but here the proportion of such whales is not likely to be very large. The 



