690 MARINE PRODUCTS OF COMMERCE 



The smaller whales are shot with a "bottlenose gun" of IJa-inch bore, mounted 

 and operated in the same manner as the larger model. The small dolphins and 

 porpoises are hunted from a special boat with pulpit prow and shot with shotgun 

 and buckshot. Before the carcass sinks, the stunned animal is harpooned by hand 



Fig. 33-2. A harpooned 

 liiimpback whale in the west- 

 ern Australian waters. 



iCourtcsy U. S. Coast Guard) 



and secured to a line tied to a small barrel which can be thrown over the side 

 if there is no time to bring the carcass alongside and hoist it aboard. 



Today most of the whales hunted, the rorquals or finners, sink when dead and 

 must be inflated so as to be left floating while others are hunted, and to facilitate 

 towing. Either the abdomen or the chest cavity and tongue are inflated, depend- 

 ing on which has not been perforated by the harpoon or fragments of the bomb. 



