OCT 12 IQOH 



Siipph-Dunt to the 



ZOOLOGICAL 

 SOCIETY BULLETIN 



A'o. -30 Published by the Xeic York Zoological Soviet ij. July. J 908 



THE PASSING OF THE WHxVLE. 



By Frederic A. Lucas. 

 Curator in Chief of the Museum of Arts and Sciences of the Brooklyn Institute 



rHE attention of all persons interested in 

 the conservation of the animal resources of 

 the world, is especially directed to the article by 

 Mr. Lucas on "The Passing of the Whale," 

 published as a supplement to the present number 

 of the Bulletin of the New York Zoological 

 Society. It is a truthful statement by one of 

 the best-informed students of the subject. The 

 valuable whale is unquestionably going fast — 

 faster than the valuable fur seal — and soon may 

 be classed with the sea otter, American l>ison 

 and other wealth-producing animals whose com- 

 mercial value has been lost to man. As a source 

 of wealth the whale is the most important of all. 



Steps have been taken by the Zoological So- 

 ciety to place the information contained in this 

 article before legislative bodies in many parts 

 of the world. 



The Society as a scientific association devoted 

 to the preservation of wild animals, earnestly re- 

 quests the careful consideration of it by every 

 legislator into whose hands it may come. 



C. H. T. 



The New York Zoological Society at its An- 

 nual Meeting in January adopted a resolution 

 relative to the protection of whales by interna- 

 tional agreement. 



The idea that the preservation of whales was 

 necessary and desirable was new to many mem- 

 bers of the Society. This was perhaps natural 

 as whales and whaling industries do not come 

 under the observation of the average citizen. 

 Yet whales as economic animals have been and 

 continue to be of immense value to man. They 

 are of the greatest possible interest zoologicallj-. 



since they are the largest of existing animals. 

 One species — the Sulphur-bottom whale — attains 

 a length of eighty feet, being of greater size 

 than the extinct dinosaurs, the largest of the 

 wonderful animals of the past. 



From a strictlj- American viewpoint the wli.ile 

 deserves serious consideration as it was half a 

 century ago the basis of an industry which 

 brought great wealth to the Xew England 

 States. In the days when the whale fishery 

 was most important there were over six hundred 

 American ships and many thousands of men 

 regularly engaged in that industrj-. 



During a period of nearly fifty years prior 

 to about 1872 the value of whale oil and whale- 

 bone landed by American vessels, amounted to 

 more than '270 millions of dollars. 



Subsequently the whaling industry as con- 

 ducted from vessels graduall}' declined. The 

 present method of whaling from shore stations 

 is of quite recent introduction. 



It is a startling fact that nearly all species 

 of whales are threatened with early extinction 

 bv reason of the destructiveness of modern 

 methods of whaling, practiced chiefly from sta- 

 tions located on sliore. 



The protection of whales is therefore neces- 

 sary if any whales are to be left for future sup- 

 ply. How rapidly whales of all kinds, save 

 possibly the Sperm wliale, are disappearing 

 before tlie attacks of man, may be inferred from 

 a glance of the shore-whaling industry and par- 

 ticularlv at that of Newfoundland, whose sta- 

 tistics are most readily available and wiiere the 

 effects of modern methods are most apparent. 



