446 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



Before 1903 we have no data as to the num- 

 ber of whales taken along the coast of New- 

 foundland and can only say that the value of 

 whale products rose successively from $1,581 in 

 1898, to $36,428 in 1900, and $125,287 in 1902. 

 Making a rough estimate, based on the value 

 of the products of the whale fishery, one may 

 say that this represents not less than 350 

 whales, more probably about 500, since prior to 

 1902 the waste was very great. The first whal- 

 ing station in which modern methods were 

 adopted was established in 1897 and its success 

 was so great that in 1903 four others had been 

 erected and three more planned, although but 

 three steamers were then employed. R. T. Mc- 

 Grath in the Report of the Newfoundland De- 

 partment of Fisheries for 1903, gave it as his 

 opinion that no more applications for factories 

 should be granted for some years to come, say- 

 ing "Two factories are about to be erected, one 

 at Trinity and one at Bonavista — during the 

 coming year. This will make eight factories 

 in all, viz., Balena, Aquaforte, Snook's Arm, 

 Chaleur Bay, Cape Broyle, Bonavista and Trin- 

 ity. In my opinion no further applications 

 should be granted for some years. If licenses 

 are given without restriction, it will result in 

 complete depletion of this industry within a 

 short time; whilst if judiciously dealt with, it 

 will be a profitable source of revenue, and a 

 great assistance to the laboring people of the 

 colony for many years to come." This advice, 

 however, was not heeded, the only restriction 

 placed on whaling being that stations should 

 not be nearer one another than twenty miles 

 and that but one steamer should be employed. 

 These restrictions were practically of no avail 

 as one steamer was all that could then be em- 

 ployed to advantage and a run of twenty miles 

 is nothing to a 12-knot vessel. So whaling 

 stations rapidly multiplied until by 1905 eight- 

 een were in operation, occupying all the more 

 favorable locations about Newfoundland, Labra- 

 dor and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and fifteen 

 steamers were employed. The effects of this 

 over-multiplication were felt at once, and while 

 in 1903 three steamers took 858 whales, or an 

 average of 286 each, in 1905 fifteen steamers 



took but 892 whales or an average of only 59 

 a vessel. 



In 1903 3 vessels took 858 whales 



" 1901 10 " " 1275 



" 1905 15 " 892 



" 1906 14 " " 429 



" 1907 14 " " 481 



3935 whales 

 Taken between 1898-1902, esti- 

 mated 350 



4285 whales 



Thus in ten years more than 4,000 whales 

 have been captured in the immediate vicinity of 

 Newfoundland. The effect was disastrous and 

 caused the ruin of the smaller companies, the 

 chief sufferers being the smaller shareholders 

 who had invested their entire capital. 



One of the arguments in favor of indiscrim- 

 inate whaling has been the theory that whales 

 had the whole world to draw upon and that the 

 depletion in any one locality would soon be sup- 

 plied by overflow from another. To a slight 

 extent this may be true for there seems some rea- 

 son to believe that whales do now and then pass 

 from the Pacific to the Atlantic* but on the 

 whole whales are restricted in their range as 

 other animalst and extermination in one place 

 means extermination in that locality for all 

 time. Another fallacy was the belief that the 

 supply of whales was practically limitless and 

 that one might "slay and slay and slay" con- 

 tinuously. There is not a more mischievous 

 term than "inexhaustible supply," and certainly 

 none more untrue. So we see our inexhaustible 

 forests on the verge of disappearing, our inex- 

 haustible supplies of coal and oil daily growing 

 less, and the end of the inexhaustible supply of 

 whales in sight. Man is recklessly spending 

 the capital Nature has been centuries in ac- 



*Capt. Bull states that a Sulphur-bottom whale 

 shot on the coast of Norway contained a harpoon 

 fired into it on the coast of Kamchatka and that a 

 Humpback killed off Aquaforte was found to have in 

 the flesh an unexploded bomb lance fired from a San 

 Francisco whaler in the Pacific. 



+For example, the Sulphur-bottom is not found or 

 occurs as a straggler on the East coast of Newfound- 

 land; although once common on the South coast. 



