137 



Once a whale goes aboard a whaling ship and goes through the 

 ijrinding wheels and the butchering, it is finished and there is no way 

 to tell a gray whale from any other whale. 



My feeling is that the gray whale population has leveled off and it 

 may very well be that there is some sort of, what I guess you would 

 call, piracy of these species. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Can you give us an idea of the population level of 

 these different species ? 



Dr. Walker. I have some notes here. Again these vary. 



The estimate for the blue whale is somewhere between 600 and 3,000. 



The estimate for the finback supposedly is around 100,000. 



The sei whale which another is closely related to these two I suspect 

 may be 75,000. 



The sperm whale is the only whale species that has any real hope of 

 continuing to the 21st century because essentially whaling can be con- 

 fined to the male population which is supemumary. 



The humpback whale is around 2,000. 



The gray whale istetween 6,000 and 10,000. 



The bowhead whale, as I reported, in the l7th century fisheries of 

 Holland and England was very abundant but now it is estimated 

 between 20 and 200. 



The right whale is 20 to 250. 



The small estimates are completely out of order. They may be quite 

 a bit more. 



A whale comes to the surface to breathe every so many minutes. 



Statistically, it is very difficult to census them in this way. 



The best census is really based on catch statistics. 



Well, this film is a film showing how the whalers operate. 



I would like to point out that whaling is a nasty business. There is 

 no easy way to kill a whale. I cannot argue the point. 



There have been a number of experiments attempting to figure out 

 the way of killing whales and the way now is to shoot them and explode 

 a bomb in their body. This film deals with the killing of blue whales. 



Let's stop it there. I am very much against seeing anything slaugh- 

 tered if it is alright with you. 



I have at least made my point. I do feel the whale is a heritage we 

 must pass on to future generations and there is only one way to do 

 it and that is to get with it. 



Mr. DiNGELL. Doctor, the committee is grateful to you for your pres- 

 ence and your very helpful statement. 



The Chair observes one more witness was scheduled, Mr. Tom Gar- 

 rett, of Friends of the Earth. 



The Chair announces at this time that further hearings will be held 

 at which time Government witnesses will be called in. Witnesses from 

 Alaska, California, and also from other conservation organizations 

 and private citizens will be heard at a time later. 



The Chair does advise it is the intention of the subcommittee to move 

 forward as rapidly as possible toward a good, solid bill to protect 

 marine mammals. 



The Chair does announce that the next set of hearings will take place 

 September 13, at which time the Department of State, the Department 

 of Commerce, and the Department of Interior will be heard. 



