54 



WHALES 



'hale 

 about 20 ft 



Old 26ft 



Bottlenose Whale 

 about J J ft 



Figure ig. Three large North Atlantic Dolphins. [Slijper, 1954.) 



Dolphins (Fig. 18) in particular, have been caught for more than two 

 centuries, mainly for the sake of their oil, is Cape Hatteras in North 

 Carolina, about 350 miles south of New Yoi'k; here the fishermen usually 

 drive the animals ashore with nets. 



An animal that has proved very profitable for centuries, particularly to 

 North Atlantic fishermen, is the Pilot Whale (Fig. 19), an almost entirely 

 black dolphin which attains a length of up to 28 feet. The Pilot Whale has 

 a nearly spherical forehead, very long flippers and a rather low and 

 elongated dorsal fin. It always moves about in schools, which often 

 number hundreds and sometimes thousands of individuals. These 

 gregarious animals are known to frequent bays and even to strand in 

 great numbers. The local fishermen take advantage of this fact, and for 

 instance on 20th October, 1954, in Vejle Fjord on Jutland (Denmark) 

 they killed sixty-three animals at one fell swoop. Their sale provided the 

 captors with the rather disappointing sum of about f,2^o, but they did 

 not seem to mind, since reminiscences of their windfall still help to while 

 away their long winter evenings. However, there are beaches where the 



