135 



and see some of the shortcoming of science, and I feel that the case of 

 the whale is a particularly good one. 



The reason I am going to be here testifying is that I have always 

 felt the scientists who are involved in what we might call management 

 of the whale resources are essentially well-meaning scientists, and they 

 have done a tremendous job. 



There is a tremendous literature they have accumulated, but it is to 

 no avail because the people for whom they work are the whaling 

 interests and they have continued to whale above and beyond the 

 amount they should. 



The result is that gradually the whaling interests are dropping out 

 one by one and at the present time we are down to three nations that 

 are whaling, four if you want to consider our whaling station at 

 Richmond, Calif. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Do we not also have some outlaw whalers? 



Dr. Walker. Yes. I feel very strongly that this legislation is a 

 must. 



We must endeavor to go on record as being opposed to whaling 

 at the present time and we owe it to future generations to preserve 

 whales. 



Whales have figured tremendously in the mystique of the sea, the 

 literature of the sea. Everyone identifies strongly with whales. 



Whales are animals of mystery and animals whose ability and 

 agility to keep out of our way leaves us, as researchers, in an em- 

 barrassing position. 



We cannot do the research on them that we want. If we are intent 

 on maintaining a population level of human beings at the present 

 level or at some larger level, it is obvious that we are going to have 

 to turn to the sea for food. 



I feel a little unhappy about this thought and we have already been 

 living out of the sea, but if we are going to do it we are going to have 

 to somehow give the species a chance to come back. 



At the present time we have seven whale species that are available for 

 commercial whaling and of these seven, three are in rare condition. 

 We have the gray, the bowhead, the rake and now the humpback 

 whale and, of course, the blue and if we are going to give these 

 creatures a chance to come back, the 10-year moratorium is not 

 enough. 



We are talking about populating tremendous volume of a vast sur- 

 face of the globe, approximately 70 percent of the ocean which is 

 available to the whales and I just somehow feel that the committee 

 should consider this an overpowering necessity to somehow see the 

 right moral and the right conservation practice so that the whales 

 do have a chance to come back. 



The bowhead whale and the right whale have not been whaled prop- 

 erly for over a hundred years and in spite of the fact that they are not 

 being whaled, they have not come back. 



There is a strong feeling that maybe when an animal gets down to 

 a certain level with the volume of the ocean and the problem of whales 

 getting together to mate, that they just cannot do it. 



There is also some impression that gregarious animals, social ani- 

 mals, when they are put into population situations which are too few, 



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