2l6 WHALES AND DOLPHINS 



region where the whale was to be found was ruthlessly exploited 

 and a terrible destruction occurred, particularly, it is said, of 

 females and their calves that were in the habit of frequenting 

 inshore waters. Here again both in the South Atlantic and 

 in the Pacific the pursuit was too vigorous for the maintenance 

 of the stock, and the industry, so far as Southern Right Whales 

 were concerned, became so unproductive that it could no 

 longer continue. At the present time the Southern Right 

 Whale does not appear at all in the catches of modern whaling 

 expeditions to the south. During the 1934-35 whaling season, 

 of 39,254 whales caught throughout the world four only were 

 Right Whales, two of which were taken in Alaska and two 

 on the coast of Natal. 



In the North Pacific the variety of Black Right Whale known 

 as B. sieboldii was hunted by the American whalers from the 

 coast of Oregon to the Aleutian Islands and, according to 

 Bolau, 300 to 400 whaling ships engaged in the pursuit of this 

 animal were to be found on the Kodiac Ground, extending 

 from Vancouver Island to the Aleutian Islands, from April 

 to December in 1846-185 1. But here again the area was 

 over-fished, and the capture just mentioned of only two Pacific 

 Right Whales from this region during the last whaling year 

 for which data are available gives adequate evidence of the 

 manner in which the hunting of this species has declined. 



No specimens of North Atlantic Right Whales have appeared 

 in the records, instituted by the British Museum (Natural 

 History) twenty-five years ago, of whales and dolphins stranded 

 on the British coast, although, as already mentioned, this species 

 was represented in the catches of the Scottish and Irish whaling 

 stations operating during the earlier part of this period. There 

 are a few early records, however, of stranded specimens, some 

 questionably belonging to this species, but one at least, con- 

 cerning which an additional description was produced a year 

 or two ago, leaves no doubt that it was a North Atlantic Right 

 Whale. In the zoological notes from the voyage of Peter 

 Mundy (1655-56) the author in his diary gives a description of 

 this whale, stranded at Greenwich on June 3rd, 1658. John 

 Evelyn, in his diary, also mentions the same animal. Mundy 

 gives a full and very accurate account of the whale, illustrated 

 by drawings of its external form and of the way it feeds. 



