MIGRATIONS AND DISTRIBUTION 



245 



one in 54 E was nearer to that concentration than to the 80-100 E group. One was 

 fired in the depleted South-West Atlantic group. 



Table 13. Marks recovered from Humpbacks 



The list of recoveries clearly shows that the 80-100 E group is made up of the same 

 whales as those which appear in winter off the coast of Western Australia, and the two 

 recoveries from Madagascar leave little doubt that the Humpbacks concentrated about 

 10-40 E are the same stock as those found in African waters, especially as there has 

 been no interchange between the two sides of the Indian Ocean or between the separate 

 Antarctic groups. These connexions are of course noted by Rayner who says (p. 273) : 

 ' ... in comparison with Blue and Fin whales the Humpback shows less initiative and 

 seems content to follow the same routes, returning to the same region season after 

 season.' 



In view of these recoveries of whale marks it can hardly be doubted that each of the 

 Antarctic summer groups has its own migration route to the coastal waters of a continent 

 lying approximately to the north of it. Thus the Humpbacks grouped in summer in 

 70-80 W are presumably those which move up the Chilean coast in winter. Of those 

 grouped in 10-40 E some at least must migrate to East African waters. Others possibly 

 reach the West African coasts, but no marks have been recovered there. Those in 

 80-100 E clearly migrate to the West Australia coast, and it may be inferred that 

 the Ross Sea Humpbacks are identified with those found in New Zealand and East 

 Australian waters. The winter destination of the depleted Scotia Sea group is not clear. 

 They might belong to the east coast of South America, but if that were so one would 

 have expected a more considerable Humpback fishery to have been established off the 

 Brazilian coast. It may be that they migrate north-eastwards to the West African coast, 

 and the fact that the decline in the Humpback fishery at South Georgia was closely 

 followed by a decline in the catches at Angola (see Table 10, p. 234) favours this 

 possibility. 



These facts and inferences are summarized in Table 14 and Fig. 4, and for con- 

 venience most of the groups are provisionally named according to the continental region 

 to which they are presumed to be related. Those numbered II-V in Table 14 correspond 

 with Hjort, Lie and Ruud's areas II-V, but these authors' area I was only a small region 



