No matter how you look at it... It's a whale of an industry.pdf

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extracted text: No matter how you look at it . . It’s a WHALE of an Industry J s far back as 1842, whaling was a flourishing in dustry in Western Aus tralia, and, in addition, many farms along the coast depended for their existence on supply ing fresh vegetables to xthe whalers. The industry was then controlled by Norwegian com panies. However, the companies concerned in the post-war re vival of the trade in Western Australia are Australian-owned, and between them they produce whale oil which is worth more than £A1 million annually. By JOHN DAVIDSON One of these companies is the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company, which began opera tions in 1952 at Frenchman’s Bay in the Albany district. This concern operates twp whale catchers, or ’chasers, as they are sometimes called (except by the skipper, who assures you that he catches whales and doesn’t just chase them). The vessels, Cheynes and Kos VII, both of about 250 tons, with November 1958 S3 modern whale 'chaser of a radar device which keeps track of the whale at depth, in somewhat the same way that Asdic detects submerged submarines. a maximum speed of 12V2 knots, are steam-operated with oil-fired burners, each consum ing about six-and-a-half tons of oil a day. Mounted on the bow of each ship is a harpoon gun, which fires a harpoon weighing 170 lb., to which is attached 80 fa thoms of rope. The explosive warhead of the harpoon ex plodes inside the whale, usually causing instantaneous deaths When dead, the whale is in flated for buoyancy and is towed by a launch to the shore pro cessing station at Frenchman’s Bay, about 14 miles from the town of Albany. The chaser, the shore station and the towing launch are in two-way radio contact, and time is saved by constant reports on sightings and positions. An air craft, flown by Mr. John Downie, spots, locates and often as sists in catching the whales. Mr. Downie also sees that buoyed whales do not come adrift. Sighting whales is an expert’s job, especially in rough weather. Often, it is the blowing of the whale which betrays its posi tion. Incidentally, the vertical f spout of water so much asso ciated with whales is not water pumped up by the whale, but condensation from the large volume of air forced from its T * here are numerous types of whales, but, in recent years, the humpback and sperm whales have been the species hunted in Western Australian waters. The humpback caught off the Australian coast spends part of the year in its feeding grounds in the Antartic, and then travels up through warmer waters surrounding Australia, lungs. An interesting sidelight on hunting sperm whales, which can lie submerged for up to 50 minutes, is the use by the 54 Panorama South Africa and South Amer ica, where breeding takes place. While migrating, the whales do not feed, but rely on their body fats to sustain them. Humpbacks grow to 50 feet in length and weigh about a ton for each foot in length. Un like the sperm whale, the hump back has no teeth, just a series of bony plates in the upper jaw. The sperm whale, which ’has about 48 teeth in the lower jaw, inhabits the deep waters off the continental shelf and feeds on large octopus and squid. There are restrictions on the number of humpback whales that can be caught. The quotas, which are voluntary and de signed to ensure that the spe cies will not become extinct, are set by the Commonwealth Fisheries Department in con junction with the International Whaling Statistics in Norway. Other restrictions do not per mit the killing of whales under 35 feet in length or of a lac tating cow whale with calf. How can you recognize a lac tating cow whale? “That’s easy,” ’chaser skip per Frank Hughes, of Cheynes Beach Whaling, told me. “A whale with a calf will take it on her back or under a flipper, for protection, when pursued.” Cheynes Beach Whaling Com pany is allowed a quota of only 120 humpbacK whales a season, and these are obtained between June and late July (some larger companies are allowed 1,000 humpbacks). When the towing launch brings the whale along side the shore station, a Fish eries Department inspector is waiting to check whether or not it is regulation length. Then the flensing (or cuttingup) operation begins. This is a slippery and bloody business to watch—let alone perform. However, it is most interesting to see skilled operators at work with their long razor-sharp flensing knives. Finally, the whole whale, including blubber and bones, is cut up to a suit able size to despatch down a. circular opening to the Kwanatype ooker, which is similar in principle to the domestic pres sure cooker, except that in ad dition it contains a large, re volving, perforated cylinder through which the whole con tents pass as cooking reduces the size of the particles. The whale is cooked for five or six hours, heat being supplied by steam generated from burners fired by fuel oil at a consump tion rate of 50 tons a week. A fter cooking, the complete contents of the cooker are blown over to settling tanks. The oil is tapped to containers and the residue, called grax, a mixture of offal and oil, is passed through super decanters, from which further oil is ex. traded. The grax settles and November 1958 55 is fed into a. drier, where mois ture is extracted, the result be ing a meal of high protein con tent, used either as stock or poultry feed or as fertilizer. The humpback yields edible oil, sold in Britain and Europe mainly for the manufacture of margarine. The oil is valued at about £85 sterling a ton. The average whale weighs nine tons^ but one humpback, recently caught by Cheynes Beach Whal ing, yielded 15 tons of oil. Sperm oil is inedible and used mainly for such industrial pur poses as tanning, steel temper ing, and as a blend with min eral oils for machinery lubrica tion. Britain is the chief buyer of this oil, which is valued at about £90 sterling a ton, the average oil per whale being eight tons. Oil is stored at the whaling station in tanks, which have a total capacity of 2,000 tons, un: til it is transferred into bulk tanks in cargo vessels to be shipped overseas. In 1956, when only one ’chaser was employed, Cheynes Beach Whaling export ed oil to the value of £100,000. A small .organization such as Cheynes Beach, with a quota of only 120 humpback whales, would use about 700 tons of fuel oil a year, including that used by one ’chaser, as was the case in 1956. In addition, four tons of diesel fuel is needed each week by diesel engines at the shore station. About 1,000 gallons of lubricants is needed annually, plus 10,000 gallons of motor spirit and a similar amount of distillate. The company is expanding, and now, with two ’chasers em ployed, can hunt a greater quan tity of non-quota sperm whales in addition to their quota of humpbacks, so the figures given should be considerably in creased, and we will find West ern Australia’s economy en hanced of yet another valuable industry. * * * * Wolf Scent “P eckLinghausen, West Germany. — A chemical U which smells like wolves is keeping rabbits and stray dogs from spoiling the beauties of a city park at Herten near here. It is spread on all lawns and flower beds and when animals get wind of the artificial wolf-scent they give the park a wide berth. 56 Panorama
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