112 : “TERRA NOVA” EXPEDITION. 
Southern summer the Humpback whales concentrate in the Antarctic Ocean, where 
they are found in great numbers off the South Shetlands, South Georgia, and 
similar localities, between the months of November and March. They turn North 
in the autumn and radiate outwards, passing up the coasts of the three great 
continental areas, towards the equator. But as it is scarcely possible to observe 
the Cetacea in the Antarctic Ocean during the winter, we do not know how many 
remain there throughout those dark months. 
It therefore appears to be possible, as far as the Mystacoceti are concerned, to 
divide the Southern whaling grounds into’ three classes. The first class, or best, 
‘fisheries,’ are in the cold Antarctic seas, where there is plenty of food for 
Whalebone whales. These grounds can only be worked durmg the summer months, 
on account of their high latitude. 
The second class areas are off the shores of the great continents, between 
Lat. 50° S. and the equator. These waters probably owe their favourable character 
to cold southern currents, such as those which run up the western shores of South 
America and South Africa; and also to the rivers, which carry ammonia into the 
sea from the land, and thereby minister to the needs of the Nanno-plankton, upon 
which the plankton animals feed, which are in their turn the food of the Whalebone 
whales. 
The best season for these grounds appears to be during the winter.* 
The third class, or poorest, fields are in the warm, open oceans, where the 
plankton-supply falls to a minimum. At the present time it does not pay whalers 
to exploit the open seas for the Mystacoceti. 
The foregoing general scheme of what we may perhaps call the quantitative 
distribution of the Whalebone whales, although it would seem to apply to all 
members of the group, is perhaps best demonstrated by the case of the Humpback. 
The coast-loving habits of this whale cause it to be more readily observed than the 
species of Balaenoptera, which tend to keep further out at sea. 
As an illustration of the so-called ‘bad luck” which accrues to whalers who 
fail to realise the quantitative distribution of whales, | may mention the case of 
the Company with whom I spent four months. They exploited the warm seas to 
the north of New Zealand, and employed there a “plant” which was on a scale 
suitable for a first-class whaling ground, such as South Georgia. The result was they 
*The cold currents on the western sides of the continents are due to an up-welling of cold water from 
the bottom of the oceans. In the tropics, the deeper layers replace the water carried westward by the 
trade winds as the Equatorial Current. In temperate regions the greatest vertical circulation takes place 
in the winter, when the surface-temperature is at a minimum, and the denser upper layers sink down and 
are replaced by the warmer water from below. 
The bottom-water is said to be comparatively rich in ammonia from the decomposition of organic 
remains on the sea floor; and consequently when this water comes to the surface, during the winter 
months, the plankton reaches a maximum, See “The Depths of the Ocean,” by Sir John Murray and 
Dr. J. Hjort, London, 1912, pp. 371 and 378. 
