28 



Thirty-ninth Annual Report 



Whaling. 



Whaling in its modern form was conducted in Scottish waters 

 from 1903 to 1914, but was thereafter completely suspended by order 

 of the Admiralty until last year. Before the war it was conducted 

 by five companies, four of which had stations in Shetland and one in 

 Harris, most of which were Norwegian or of Norwegian origin. 

 Feeling against whaling on account of its alleged injurious effect upon 

 herring fishing has run high in the Scottish fishing centres, especially 

 in Shetland, almost since its introduction, and as mentioned in the 

 last Annual Report, a Committee of the Board which inquired into 

 the question in 1919 recommended the abolition of whaling in 

 Shetland. In their recommendation the Board concurred, but so far 

 no action has been taken in the matter. 



Two of the Shetland stations (viz. those in Olna and Colla Firths) 

 and that in Harris were in operation during 1920, employing their 

 full complement of nine whaling steamers. From the returns of 

 whales landed by the limited fleet at work it would appear that the 

 virtual close time resulting from the war must have led to an in- 

 crease in the numbers of whales in Scottish waters ; the total number 

 of all kinds landed in each year since whaling began is shown in the 

 following table : — 



Year. 



1903 

 1904 

 1905 

 1906 

 1907 

 1908 

 1909 



No. of Whales 

 landed. 

 127 

 327 

 533 

 710 

 600 

 651 

 730 



Year. 



1910 

 1911 

 1912 

 1913 

 1914 

 1920 



No. of Whales 

 landed. 

 615 

 503 

 444 

 437 

 599 

 658 



Total 



6934 



Particulars of the whales taken in 1920 as compared with the 

 results in 1914 are as follow : — 



Total Total 

 1920. 1914. 



331 325 



261 248 



58 19 



1 5 



5 



1 2 

 1 



658 599 



Finner and sei whales, both known it will be observed by their 

 Norwegian names, have all along predominated in the catch. An 

 exceptional number of the large Blue whales was taken during the 

 year, most of them measuring over 70 feet in length, and the largest, 





Male. 



Female 



Finner (Balamoptera musculus) - 



169 



162 



Sei (B. borealis) 



144 



117 



Blue (B. sibbaldi) 



31 



27 



Northcaper (Balcena biscayensis) 



1 





Bottlenose {Hyperoodori) 



2 



3 



Humpback (Megaptera) 



1 





Killer (Orcinus orca) - 





1 



Totals - 



348 



310 



