The South Georgia Whale Fishery

Abstract

A NOTE on p. 470 of NATURE for August 15 contains the statement that scientific experts have, until now, not been consulted in the matter of the South Georgia whale fishery, which has been administered entirely by the Colonial Office. There is at present a considerable tendency to criticise Government Departments for failing to make use of scientific opinion, but I feel sure that you will allow me to point out that this particular criticism is not justifiable. The Colonial Office has for some years been fully alive to the fact that the regulation of sub-Antarctic whaling is a scientific problem, and since 1910 it has been in constant communication on the subject with the Natural History Museum. Under arrangements thus made the museum receives detailed statistics from the companies operating at South Georgia, each individual whale caught being separately recorded. Similar statistics are beginning to come in from the South Shetlands (a district almost as important as South Georgia) and from some of the African companies; while promises of returns from other whaling centres have also been received. In addition to this, the Colonial Office furnishes half-yearly and other reports on the whaling operations at the districts under its jurisdiction, and it has received many reports from the museum commenting on the facts thus recorded, and offering advice on the various questions raised.