THE ECONOMICS OF WHALING 57 



and thirty square miles. The Norwegian minister 

 for Foreign Affairs stated that this fiord had always 

 been regarded as part of the territorial waters of 

 Norway. 



There can be little doubt that in the future 

 whaling all over the world should be the subject of 

 suitable regulation, having for its main object the 

 protection of the few remaining Cetacea. The 

 Basque fishery of the Bay of Biscay and the " Green- 

 land " fishery alike came to an end because of over- 

 fishing. The modern Arctic fishery is also on its 

 last legs, and the great Cachalot fisheries are equally 

 moribund. Only in the Antarctic regions do whales 

 flourish, and even here they are now the object of 

 ceaseless hunting and shooting. 



The great objection to whaling as at present 

 carried on is that so many pregnant females or 

 females with suckling young are killed ; while there 

 is, theoretically, a prohibition against killing the 

 latter in some areas, there is no effective means 

 whereby the whaler can identify a gravid female 

 while it is swimming in the water. 



The whalers themselves say that long before the 

 whales become extinct, whaling will cease to be 

 profitable on account of the increasing scarcity of 

 the more valuable species. At present it does not 

 pay to kill whales under forty feet in length, and 

 this, of course, protects the smaller species, and the 

 young members of the larger kinds, but since young 

 whales up to forty-five or even fifty feet in length 

 have been seen accompanying the mother, in case 



