498 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



in the eastern Pacific" and add that the individual killed in 

 July, 1926, "was in company with four others and was the 

 only individual of this species ever secured at this station" 

 (Trinidad). 



Very little recent information is at hand as to the status of 

 the gray whale in the western Pacific, beyond that supplied by 

 Dr. R. C. Andrews (1914). In 1910 he learned that a Japanese 

 whaling company operated at Ulsan on the southeastern shore 

 of the peninsula of Korea, and on visiting it during the winter 

 of 1911-12 he found that the gray whale formed the basis of 

 its winter fishery. During the months of January and Febru- 

 ary while he was at the station, 50 or more gray whales were 

 taken. According to C. H. Townsend (1930a) a total of 1,051 

 were taken from 1910 to 1920 off Japan. Further statistics 

 are given by Harmer (1928, p. 83), who notes that the largest 

 number of this species recorded for the eight years 1919-1926 

 from the Japanese stations is 78 in 1921; but 114 were taken 

 in 1915, and 105 in 1918. "It is the general opinion of Japanese 

 whalers that the industry is declining, and that the fall is most 

 marked in the case of the Gray Whale, of which an annual 

 average of 81 is recorded for the period 1915-1919, but of only 

 21 for 1922 to 1926." The figures do not give much encourage- 

 ment to the belief that the gray whale is slowly gaining ground. 

 It may be necessary to prohibit its killing altogether for a 

 term of years if it is to be maintained at all. In the Convention 

 between the United States and other Powers for the Regulation 

 of Whaling, proclaimed in 1935, no mention of the species is 

 made, but a certain amount of good may ensue if strict ad- 

 herence can be obtained from the whalers to Article 5, which 

 prohibits "the taking or killing of calves or suckling whales, 

 immature whales, and female whales which are accompanied 

 by calves (or suckling whales)." Since the young are brought 

 forth in midwinter on the coasts of Lower California and 

 southern California and among the islands just south of Korea, 

 and would be accompanying their mothers on the northward 

 migration in spring (April and May), such a prohibition would 

 be effective in preserving a certain proportion, while in the 

 Arctic waters frequented by these whales in summer the 

 amount of hunting is probably negligible. Unfortunately, 

 Japan is not a signatory to this treaty. With the expiration of 

 the 1935 agreement a similar one was entered into in June, 1937, 



