WHALE HUNTING WITH GUN AND CAMERA 



following year in Saldanha Bay on the west coast. 

 Stations have also been built at several places in 

 Australia and Tasmania, and in New Zealand hump- 

 back whales are being caught in wire nets. This 

 method is so unique that a description of it here may 

 be of interest. 



The station is owned by the Messrs. Cook Brothers 

 and is located south of the Bay of Islands, at the vil- 

 lage of Wangamumu. On their annual migrations 

 the humpback whales often pass through a narrow 

 channel just under Cape Brett, which separates a clus- 

 ter of outlying rocks from the mainland, and makes 

 an ideal spot to place the nets. Having a stretch of 

 five hundred or six hundred feet and a depth of two 

 hundred, the nets, meshed to seven feet and made of 

 three-eighths-inch wire rope, are hung on strong cables 

 buoyed by huge floats and drogues. When a whale 

 is sighted from the coast, steam launches place the 

 three nets, which are allowed to float loose, the prin- 

 ciple being to so hamper the whale by the entangling 

 wires that it falls an easy prey to the hunters. What 

 happens when a whale is caught can best be told in the 

 words of an eye-witness. 



When the nets are in position the launches and attendant 

 whale-boats, with their crews, take up their stations at some 

 distance to watch for the upheaval and dancing float-line 

 that marks the "striking" of a whale. . . . Suddenly a sort 

 of shudder runs through the sea. There are tossing billows 

 and wild commotions away by the bobbing float-lines. 

 "Hurrah ! She's struck !" is the cry. 



Away go the boats, each racing to be first "fast" to the 



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