THE OLD OAKEN CHEST 167 



hunting period was limited and each expedition was 

 allowed to take only a certain quota of whales. They 

 gave us another difficult pill to swallow just before World 

 War II when they told us we were not to kill whales below 

 certain lengths. Somehow I think they overlooked the 

 humpback whale so we gunners made use of him to bring 

 up the average of our kills and boost our precious reputa- 

 tions — so much so, that after the war they made him 

 absolutely taboo south of the fortieth latitude. They have 

 lifted the taboo recently but they still keep a very watch- 

 ful eye on the welfare of Mr. Humpback. After the war 

 all the nations with whaling ships engaged in the Antarctic 

 fishery formed an international commission for the 

 regulation of whaling and in 1 946 they issued a long list of 

 restrictions that made many a poor gunner dizzy to read. 

 South of the fortieth latitude the season for baleen whales 

 was reduced to a period of just over three months between 

 January 2nd and April yth. It was forbidden to kill a 

 blue whale under seventy feet, a fin under sixty feet, a sei 

 (one of the smaller rorquals) under forty feet, a humpback 

 under thirty-five feet and a sperm under thirty-eight 

 feet. I had to learn to judge the whale's length by the 

 breadth of the part he showed above the water and that 

 wasn't so easy when there was a gale on and the catcher's 

 bows doing a jig. The total catch of baleen whales for all 

 expeditions in the Southern Ocean was fixed at sixteen 

 thousand blue whale units for each season. One blue 

 whale equalled two fin or six sei and each factory ship had 

 to make weekly radio reports of the numbers caught. If 

 the sixteen thousand units was reached before April 7th 

 then the Commission headquarters declared the season 

 ended and we had to console ourselves with killing some 

 sperm whale before we came home. All the whales 

 had to be flensed within thirty-three hours of being killed 

 to ensure good quality oil. And to make sure that all 

 these rules were observed the Commission put a pair of 



