PREFACE 



WHALING operations by modern methods began in the Dependen- 

 cies of the Falkland Islands in 1904 and rapidly developed. By 

 1912-13 the number of the small steamships known as whale 

 catchers which were employed had risen to twenty-one in South Georgia, and 

 thirty-two in the South Shetlands. The whaling industry in the Dependencies 

 had become the largest in the world, a position which it still retains. From 

 1909-10 to 1917-18, over three million barrels of whale oil were produced, 

 valued at over ,(^20,000,000. In the ensuing years the industry underwent 

 a remarkable development, and in the single season 1928-29 the output was 

 1,047,000 barrels valued at ^5,513,000. 



Almost from the beginning the Government of the Falkland Islands 

 exercised control over the industry by means of a system of leases and licenses, 

 which was given legal form in the Whale Fishery Ordinance, 1908. The 

 primary object of such control was to regulate the use of Crown lands, 

 harbours and territorial waters by the whalers. It was not long, however, 

 before there were complaints that the whalers utilised only the blubber and 

 abandoned the remainder of the carcases. As the industry grew, apprehensions 

 were expressed that such intensive pursuit threatened the maintenance of the 

 stock of whales. These apprehensions were strongly reinforced by the lessons 

 of whaling history, which abounds in examples of the destruction of whaling 

 industries in particular localities through over-fishing. Accordingly the 

 Colonial Government sought to employ its control to effect the prevention 

 of waste and the protection of the stock of whales. 



The first problem, that of the prevention of waste, at that time presented 

 no difficulties except those of enforcement and of reasonable adaptation to 

 commercial possibilities and requirements, and waste was in fact reduced 

 within narrow limits during a long period. But there has now developed a 

 type of whaling not amenable to control, to which reference is made below. 



When the Colonial Government approached the second problem, that of 

 the protection of the stock, it soon became evident that the biological know- 

 ledge required for scientific control was almost totally lacking and could not 

 be acquired except by means of costly and prolonged investigations conceived 

 on broad lines. Existing knowledge of the specific differences of whales was 

 not inconsiderable, but was inadequate in important respects; in particular 



