332 



^V H A L E S 



to the National Institute of Oceanography, which notes all the details 

 and, if requested to do so, returns the mark to the finder. 



Whales do not show any signs of reacting to the marks, probably 

 because, to them, they are mere pinpricks. The marks do not damage 

 vital parts and the danger of infection with stainless steel marks is practic- 

 ally nil, particularly since they are nowadays coated with penicillin 

 ointment. 



Generally, marks lodge in the large mass of dorsal muscles, where they 

 are so well hidden that most of them are overlooked during the quick 

 processing operations aboard modern whalers. Subsequently, they may 

 be recovered from the boilers, but of the 5,063 marks fired by the William 

 Scoresby from 1934 to 1939, only about 370 have been recovered so far, 

 and it seems unlikely that a great many more will be found in the future. 

 The use of mine and magnetic detectors, Geiger counters, etc., for dis- 

 covering whether a dead whale has a mark lodged in it, have all proved 

 abortive, and not one of Prof. Ruud's special streamer marks, which were 

 provided with conspicuous strands of brightly-coloured nylon threads, 

 has ever been recovered. 



The marking of whales is an expensive business, in which the price of 

 every mark {£"2) is insignificant compared with the enormous cost of a 

 special marking expedition. For this reason, the National Institute of 

 Oceanography was unable to continue the valuable work it began in the 

 thirties. However, it appeared that a good deal of marking could be done 

 from ordinary catchers which often reach the Antarctic before the opening 

 of the season, either for reconnaissance or for Sperm Whale hunting which 

 has no closed season. In this way, Norwegian, Dutch, Australian, Japanese 

 and Russian catchers have been marking whales ever since the last war. 



Tr^illnj mre 



Ci^rcr/'ófje 



Figure 182. [Top of page) Whale mark issued by the National Institute of Oceanography, 

 England. {Below j Streamer-mark used by the Enern during her igjj expedition. 



