Half -Light over Warm Seas 121 



was of some importance to the late Norsk-Nipponese industry on 

 the coast of Korea, where Roy Chapman Andrews rediscovered this 

 species, thought to have been totally extinct for a quarter of a cen- 

 tury. One of the commonest species off the Japanese coasts and 

 one which these whalers particularly favored was always the sei, 

 the third greatest of the rorquals, otherwise known as the pollack 

 whale by the British, Rudolphi's Rorqual, the otta sotta, by the Ice- 

 landers, and as the iwashi-kujira by the Japanese. The name "sei" 

 comes from the Norwegian se'ievhal, which was applied to them in 

 olden times because they appeared along the coast coincident with 

 the migrations of the set, seje, or "coalfish." It is now known to sci- 

 ence as Balaenoptera borealis. 



This slender, streamUned species, with an exceedingly compressed 

 tail and a pronounced dorsal fin, grows to a length of sixty feet and 

 is probably the fastest swimmer of all whales, exceeding even the 

 finner when cruising, and being able to get away from any except 

 the killer in his final short dash. In color it is blue-black above and 

 grayish on the flanks; the underside is white from the chin to the 

 anus, narrowing about the flippers, which are tiny. The undersides 

 of the tail and the flukes are never white. The pleats under the throat 

 are variable in number, but never extend further aft than the region 

 of the flippers. There are about 330 baleen plates per side, and their 

 fringes are pure white. They are only about thirteen inches long. 

 The blowholes lie in twin furrows, and the males have a beard of 

 about 25 thick bristles on either side of the lower jaw. 



They feed on perhaps the most remarkable of all foods for any 

 animal their size. Although their Japanese name means the "sardine- 

 whale," this seems to refer more to their shape than to their dietary 

 preferences, for very few of those fish have ever been found in 

 their stomachs. On the other hand, many have been found to eat the 

 krill that form the usual staple diet of the mighty blue whale. In the 

 North Atlantic, however, they appear to maintain Ufe almost ex- 

 clusively on a tiny crustaceous animal only about an eighth of an 

 inch long known as Calanus finjnarchicus which propels itself by 

 rowing with a pair of immense, hairy antennae. Although this tiny 

 thing lives in absolutely countless numbers in northern waters, it 

 still seems almost impossible that it could provide enough sustenance 

 for thousands of sixty-foot mammals. 



