20 A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



The Odontoceti are represented by three living and 

 one extinct families, of these one family only, the 

 Sperm Whale (Physetendcs)^ is of any considerable 

 economic importance. 



Two Physeterids have been the object of a 

 considerable fishery, the Sperm Whale or Cachalot 

 (Physeter macro cephalus) and the Bottlenose 

 (Hyper oo don restrains). 



The Sperm Whale is one of the largest of animals 

 equalling, if not exceeding, in bulk the Greenland 

 Right Whale, which it further resembles in having 

 been from the early days of whaling the object of 

 an important fishery. The Sperm Whale is very 

 widely distributed, being found (until it Became 

 scarcer through over-fishing) in " schools " in all 

 tropical and sub-tropical seas, but only accidentally 

 in arctic or sub-arctic water. Occasionally 

 stragglers appear in the waters of the British Islands, 

 and are caught by the commercial whalers working 

 these waters, or even washed ashore. In the ten 

 years 1904-13 no less than sixty-six Sperm Whales 

 were captured by the whalers in Scottish waters ; in 

 Irish waters in the years 1909-13 the number was 

 forty-four. On 23rd May, 1917, a Sperm Whale 

 was stranded at Latheron, Caithness. 



Details of the Sperm Whale fishery are given 

 below. The so-called " Southern " fishery of the 

 British, the Pacific fisheries of British and American 

 whalers were mainly for this species. Although not 

 extinct, this species has been so much hunted and 

 harassed that it no longer serves as the sole object 



