682 MARINE PRODUCTS OF COMMERCE 



Inia geoffroyi (Amazon dolphin, "bouto") is also small. Though it has not been 

 exploited, a limited fishery would be possible. 



Lipotes vexillifer (White flag dolphin, Tung-ting dolphin) is a small species, 

 restricted to Tung Ting Lake, Yangtze River, China. No fishery exists nor the 

 possibility of one. 



Stenodelphis blainvillei (La Plata dolphin, "tonino") is small and is not taken 

 commercially, though a few are occasionally captured by fishermen off La Plata 

 Delta, South America. 



Family Ziphiidae: Beaked and bottlenose whales 



Mesoplodon (a number of species). They are beaked and are from 15 to 20 feet 

 long. None is fished regularly, though several species are occasionally taken 

 (e.g., probably the Mesoplodon bidens of the North Atlantic). The Norwegians 

 reported 6 beaked whales taken off W. Norway in 1929. Perhaps more were cap- 

 tured in the 19th century, when the fishery of the related bottlenose whales was 

 more prevalent. Beaked whales usually have 1 or 2 pairs of teeth in the tip of the 

 prolonged jaws. Their oil is largely a liquid wax with spermaceti present. 



Ziphitis cavirostris (beaked whale), though cosmopolitan, is not fished on ac- 

 count of rarity. 



Hyperoodon ampullatus (flat-headed bottlenose. North Atlantic bottlenose 

 whale) is found over the North Atlantic, with related forms in the southern 

 oceans. The adult male has a large flat "boss" on the front of the head, and grows 

 to around 30 feet. It was once fished extensively by the Scotch and Norwegians 

 in the North Atlantic off Greenland, Iceland, the Faeroes, and Norway. The oil 

 is waxy and is known as Arctic sperm oil, doegling oil, etc. The head fat also 

 contains spermaceti. 



Berardius bairdii (the giant bottlenose whale) grows to 40 feet, and is found 

 in the Pacific. The only fisheries have been conducted by the Russians around the 

 Okhotsk Sea and by the Japanese around Hokkaido and formerly also around the 

 Kuriles. In 1948 the Japanese took 76 around Hokkaido. The oil is waxy and 

 the head contains spermaceti. 



Family Physeteridae : Sperm and pygmy sperm whales 

 Phyester catodon (sperm whale, sperm, cachalot) was made famous by the ex- 

 tensive literature concerning the famous sperm whalers, principally Yankees, of 

 the 19th century and some of their famous opponents (i.e., Moby Dick, Paita 

 Tom, etc.). In size the males reach 60 feet and the females 40. These whales are 

 cosmopolitan and polygamous; harems of a few males and many females with 

 young may be found in tropical waters throughout the year, and bachelor males 

 occur in the colder waters of the northern and southern hemisphere in the summer. 

 The oil of the blubber and bone is largely a wax, that of the head, wax with 

 much spermaceti, that of the meat half or more glyceridic, and that of the liver 

 entirely glyceridic. The meat is usually considered unpalatable, but is eaten by 

 the Japanese. The liver is low in oil, but high in vitamin A. Ambergris may be 

 found in an occasional individual, usually an old male. The teeth are valuable for 

 "ivory." The tendons sheathing the enormous fat organ or spermaceti organ of the 

 head are not used, except in Japan. 



The sperm whale is distinguished at sea by its long, low back with a slight 



