X PREFACE 



the question whether southern Blue and Fin whales were distinguishable from 

 the northern forms was still unsettled. Very little was certainly known about 

 the breeding habits, migrations, rate of growth, length of life or food of the 

 whales hunted in the Dependencies. No indication could be given regarding 

 the probable amount of the annual increase of a particular species, and 

 consequently it was impossible to estimate the number of whales which might 

 be taken annually without diminishing the stock. 



It was clear that no really scientific solution of the problem could be 

 obtained for many years. In the meantime the Colonial Government could 

 only have recourse to an empirical restriction of the pursuit of whales, based 

 on the statistics of catch and the opinions of scientific men and practical 

 whalers, and exercised mainly by means of a limitation of the number of 

 licensed whale catchers, and to some extent by prohibition of the hunting 

 of species which seemed especially endangered. 



Before the War the question of the researches required to place control on 

 a scientific footing began to engage attention, and as a preliminary step the late 

 Major G. E, H. Barrett-Hamilton was employed during the Southern summer 

 of 1913-14 to make anatomical investigations of the carcases of whales at the 

 whaling stations in South Georgia. Major Barrett-Hamilton died at his post, 

 and nothing further could be done until near the conclusion of the War. A 

 Committee, the Inter-Departmental Committee on Research and Develop- 

 ment in the Dependencies of the Falkland Islands, was then appointed to 

 consider not only the preservation of the whaling industry, but also other 

 industries actual or potential, and in particular a scheme for the employment 

 of a research vessel mainly in the study of whales. The Committee's report 

 was published in 1920, and the Discovery investigations are the outcome of that 

 report. 



In the study of Blue and Fin whales considerable progress has already been 

 made, and though the age which these species attain is still a matter of con- 

 jecture, the principal features of their life history up to sexual maturity have 

 been ascertained, while measures have been taken to decide whether the 

 northern and southern stocks are specifically or racially distinguishable. These 

 investigations are obviously essential to the enquiry, and there are others no 

 less important. The industry in the South Atlantic suffers from marked 

 annual fluctuations : these are bound up with the extensive migrations which 

 the whales are known to undertake and, it may safely be assumed, are 

 governed by alterations in the food supply and other factors in their en- 



