WHALE FISHERIES — RABOT. 483 



Every spring gi*eat schools of codfish arrive on this coast in pursuit 

 of the capelan, on which they feed and which approach the land to 

 escape them. The cod are very fond of these little fish, and the 

 fishermen assert that the whales also pursue them, and that the 

 capelan, in order to escape, seek refuge in the shallow waters along 

 the coast, thereby bringing the codfish near to land. The whales, 

 becoming less numerous on account of the destructive fishery which 

 is carried on for them, the capelan find themselves less actively pur- 

 sued and remain offshore, along with the codfish, if we may credit 

 the statement of the natives. In consequence, the cod fishery, which 

 is the principal resource of Finmark, becomes more difficult and more 

 precarious. The natives do not hesitate to impute the bad results 

 of many seasons during the last decade to the whalers. Researches 

 conducted by the most competent zoologists, however, indicate that 

 no relation of cause and effect exists between the destruction of the 

 whales and the greater or less abundance of codfish on the coast of 

 Finmark. The fisherman did not on that account abandon their 

 fixed idea, and as a result of their violent agitation the Norwegian 

 Parliament prohibited whale fishing on the northern coast for a 

 period of 10 years, beginning with 1904.^ 



Wliile this discussion was going on the Norwegian whalers estab- 

 lished themselves little by little on all the coasts frequented by the 

 finbacks in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Newfoundland, Japan, South 

 Africa, and, finally, in the Antarctic. Everywhere this industry 

 is carried on by the fishermen of Sandefjord and Tonsberg, the 

 home of Svend Foyn. Companies are formed in America or in 

 Africa by means of local capital, but it is to the men of Sandefjord 

 or Tonsberg that they confide the management of the enterprise, 

 and it is from among them that they recruit their personnel. Finally, 

 when, as in Japan, native fisheries are established, it is still to the 

 Norwegian shipyards that they turn for the construction and equip- 

 ment of the whaling vessels. For this reason every year the Nor- 

 wegian Fisheries Journal publishes interesting statistics of the whale 

 fishery, by the aid of which we are able to present a simunary of the 

 results of this interesting industry in 1911 throughout the world. 



In Europe there are but four places in which the fishery is carried 

 on: The coast of the British Isles, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and 

 Spitzbergen. Seven companies, employing 16 steamers,^ operate on 

 the coast of Great Britain, four at the Shetlands, one at the Heb- 

 rides, and two on the west coast of Ireland. In 1911 they caught 

 632 whales 3 (355 at the Shetlands, 146 at the Hebrides, and 131 off 

 Ireland), while in the preceding years the number taken rose to 



1 This prohibition, ending this year, was prolonged. 



2 Seventeen in 1913. 



»Iu 1913 the catch was 548. 



