2fi A HISTORY OF THE WHALE FISHERIES 



(1) The eastern Spitsbergen-Greenland area. 



(2) A western Greenland - Arctic - North - 



American area. 



(3) The American-Asiatic area. (Behring 



Sea.) 



The first area has now been fished to death, the 

 second has only a few whales still left, whereas in 

 the third the whale holds its own fairly well. No 

 census of this whale is possible ; we have no accurate 

 idea of its former abundance. The recovery of a 

 species of whale of the dimensions of the Greenland 

 Right Whale from the effects of over-fishing is 

 extremely slow. The females carry the young for 

 probably at least a year; then there is a period of 

 helplessness and dependence on the mother during 

 the time of suckling. Possibly the mother only 

 bears one young every second year. There are 

 many factors, most of which cannot be estimated, 

 but on the whole the evidence is in favour of a very 

 slow recovery. 



The second important whale to the old whalers 

 was the Nordcaper (Balcena biscayensisy which 

 formerly frequented the European and American 

 coasts of the North Atlantic. This whale was 

 probably hunted by the Biscayans in the eleventh 

 and twelfth centuries, although their principal fishery 

 seems to have been in the fifteenth and sixteenth 

 centuries. The chase went more and more to the 



1 Or according to some authorities a variety of Balcena 

 australis. 



