504 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



the hunting for this species in the early half of the last century 

 that according to Bolau, between 1846 and 1851 there were 

 300 or 400 whaling ships engaged in its pursuit on the Kodiak 

 grounds from April to September. At that time, too, the use 

 of the bomb lance had just come in, and its deadly effect was 

 that the right whale was soon practically exterminated from 

 these waters. According to Harmer (1928) "the Japanese 

 appear to have formerly hunted this Right Whale, in their 

 own waters, from an early period, but it seems to have become 

 rare in the North Pacific, and it is not mentioned in recent 

 returns from that area." On the California coast, Grinnell 

 (1933) gives the last report known to him as of one found near 

 San Simeon, about 1885. While few recent figures for the 

 capture of this whale at the Japanese stations are available, 

 Townsend (1930a) has compiled statistics for the years 1910 

 to 1920 (both inclusive), from which it appears that right 

 whales formed a very small percentage of the catch, varying 

 from none to as many as seven or eight annually, with an 

 average of three and a fraction. In the 11 years the total num- 

 ber taken was but 35 in a grand total of 17,862, or 0.002 per 

 cent. From 1928 to 1936, other statistics show a total of 36 

 right whales taken. Evidently the North Pacific stock has 

 been depleted to nearly the vanishing point. 



The intensive pursuit of the southern right whale hardly 

 began until the opening decade of the last century, when it 

 was found in large numbers in the southern oceans mainly be- 

 tween latitudes 30 and 60 S. It was "particularly numerous 

 in coastal waters of the southern part of the African and 

 American Continents, Australia and New Zealand . . . 

 It was the subject of a large fishery which, by the destruction 

 of the females and young on the breeding grounds, reduced the 

 numbers of the species to so low an ebb that its capture was 

 abandoned. According to Harmer (1928), 193,522 Southern 

 Right Whales were captured from 1804 to 1817, an average of 

 13,823 annually." The charts compiled by Townsend (1935) 

 from old log-books show the position of capture of over 6,000 

 of these whales by American whalers between 1785 and 1913. 

 From these it is evident that most of the positions lie between 

 latitudes 30 and 50 S. In June and July (the southern 

 winter) these whales were on there wintering and breeding 

 grounds in the northern part of this area. A favorite place 



