APPENDIX I 
that the stock is by no means confined to the two areas above 
mentioned. 
The effective fishing area may be assumed to lie within a radius 
of a hundred miles from each shore station and floatuag-factory 
anchorage, and a rough estimate of all the Falkland stations works 
out at 160,000 square miles. The total for the whole Falldand area 
is about 2,000,000 square miles, which is roughly less than a sixth 
of the total Antarctic sea area. The question then arises as to how 
far the catch percentage " during the short fishing season affects 
the total stock, but so far one can only conjecture as to the actual 
results from a comparison of the numbers seen, chiefly by scientific 
and other Expeditions, in areas outside the intensive fishing area 
with the numbers and percentage of each species captured in the 
intensive fishing area. Sufficient evidence, however, seems to point 
quite definitely to one species — the humpback — being in danger of 
extermination, but the blue and fin whales — ^the other two species 
of rorquals which form the bulk of the captures — appear to be as 
frequent now as they have ever been. 
The whales captured at the various whaling-stations of the 
Falkland area are confined largely to three species — blue whale 
(Balcenoptera ynuscuhis), fin whale {Balcenoptera physalus), and 
humpback {Alegaptera nodosa) ; sperm-whales {Physeter catodon) 
and right whales [Balceim glacialis) being only occasional and rare 
captures, while the sei-whale {BalcBno'plera borealis) appeared in the 
captures at South Georgia in 1913, and now forms a large percentage 
of the captm-es at the Falkland Islands. During the earlier years 
of whaling at South Georgia, and up to the fishing season 1910-11, 
humpbacks formed practically the total catch. In 1912-13 the 
following were the percentages for the three rorquals in the 
captures at South Georgia and South Slietlands : 
Humpback 38 per cent., fin whale 36 per cent., blue whale 20 per 
cent. Of late years the percentages have altered considerably, blue 
whales and fin whales predominating, humpbacks decreasing rapidly. 
In 1915 the South Georgia Whaling Company (Messrs. Salvesen, 
Leith) captured 1085 whales, consistmg of 15 per cent, humpback, 
25 per cent, fin whales, 58 per cent, blue whales, and 2 right whales. 
In the same year the captures of three companies at the South 
Shetlands gave 1512 whales, and the percentages worked oufc at 12 
per cent, humpbacks, 42 per cent, fin whales, and 45 per cent, blue 
whales. In 1 9 1 9 the Sou : hern Whaling and Sealing Company captured 
(a'. Stromness, South G^oigia) 529 whales, of which 2 per cent, 
were humpbacks, 51 per curt, fin whales, and 45 per cent, blue whales. 
These captures do not represent the total cat h, but are sufficiently 
reliable to show how the species ar^^ affected. The reduction in 
359 
