THE WHALING INDUSTRY 683 



"hump" at one end and low spout thrown diagonally forward, as well as by its 

 long series of 20 to 30 blows at surface for 5 minutes after a long dive of 30 to 50 

 minutes' duration. The bull sperm will sometimes give fight and damage a whale- 

 boat or catcher boat. The carcass of this whale floats on the surface and is there- 

 fore easily handled. 



The sperm-whaling grounds of today are the subantarctic where the factory 

 ships take heavy toll of the bulls in a short period just before the opening of the 

 season for baleen whales; the west coast of South America, where, since 1942, shore 

 station and factory ship have operated among the breeding herds for short or ex- 

 tended periods at any season; the coast of Japan and the Bonin Islands, long- 

 famous grounds which are capable of withstanding a yearly harvest of around 

 1000 sperm whales from both breeding and bachelor herds; the Azores, another 

 famous ground, which produces by primitive methods of hand-whaling several 

 hundreds of sperm whales from harem herds throughout the year; and South 

 Africa, near Durban and Saldanha Bay. 



In the 1945-46 season in the Antarctic and in 1946 elsewhere in the world 

 3418 sperm whales were taken, and in the 1946-47 season, 7395 (IWS, 21, 8). 

 Since then the annual world catch has probably remained high, perhaps around 

 8000. According to law, the minimum length permitted to be captured is 35 feet. 



Kogia breviceps (pygmy sperm whale) is about 10 feet in length and is world- 

 wide in distribution. It is solitary and rare and is never hunted. 



Family Monodontidae (Delphinapteridae) : Narwhal and beluga (white whale) 



Delphinapterus leiicas (white whale, white porpoise, beluga). The white por- 

 poise inhabits the Arctic regions in large groups as an inshore species, and often 

 ascends rivers. The adult attains a length of 10 to 16 feet. 



The species is valuable for blubber oil, head and jaw oil, and hide-leather. The 

 blubber produces a glyceridic oil valuable for illumination and as food. The glycer- 

 idic oil of the head and jaw is valuable as a lubricant for fine instruments due to 

 its high isovaleric acid content. The liver is very low in oil, but has a considerable 

 quantity of vitamin D. The meat is good for food. 



The leather, however, is the most remarkable product. The outer layer of the 

 dermis is particularly tough and compact and tans well; it is waterproof and has 

 great tensile strength and elasticity due to the predominantly lengthwise fibers. 

 It was formerly used extensively for boots, shoelaces, and belting as the "porpoise 

 leather" of commerce. In 1900 approximately $200,000 worth of skins were on the 

 market from a year's catch of about 7000 whales, of which 6000 came from Eu- 

 rope (Stevenson, 1904b). 



Beluga fisheries have been economically important to the Eskimos in the Arc- 

 tic, to the Norwegians in the North Atlantic and around Spitzbergen, to the Cana- 

 dians on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and to the Russians in the White, Kara, and 

 Okhotsk seas. Today all these places, except Spitzbergen, are fished for white 

 whale. A good catch is also obtained from the Greenland and Hudson Bay region. 

 An American fishery in the Cook Inlet region in the 1930's was a failure (Vladykov, 

 1944). 



Monodon monoceros (narwhal) is restricted to the farthest parts of the Arctic. 

 The male is noted for its huge, twisted tusk, which is actually a projection of the 

 left canine tooth. The only fishery of any importance is at Disko Bay, W. Green- 



