New York Mermaid
08-12-2011, 09:32 PM
IT'S very sad the baby humpback had to be put down off Queensland's Gold Coast this week, but there's no doubting the care and concern of the many volunteers who turned out to try to save it. These days, the general public turns out in droves to see whales. They have long been a staple of the tourist industry, but there's nothing quite like the delight of seeing whales arrive in Sydney Harbour.
It was different for the whale that swam up the Derwent into central Hobart in 1852. The Colonial Times reported that "On Wednesday morning last much excitement was caused on the wharves by the novel appearance of a black whale which was first seen to approach Battery Point, thence swim along the New Wharf to Constitution Dock. Crowds of people gathered, shouting 'There he is' and 'Here he is' as a whale moved along the waterfront."
Immediately, those who could do so took to their boats to give chase. "They were the first to 'get fast' and to plunge the harpoon into the monster of the deep." The dead whale was hauled alongside, and cut up for its oil. It measured 12m, and was expected to yield 5 tonnes of oil.
Attitudes change. In the last few days there have been reports that Japan may be reassessing its "scientific whaling".Australia has a long history of whaling. Some of the ships of the First Fleet were whalers, and until the 1830s, whale oil was a more valuable export than wool. It continued to be important throughout the 19th century. In the 20th century, kerosene replaced whale oil, and plastics replaced whalebone, but the industry continued on a limited scale for another 70 years.
Whale numbers were already declining in the 19th century, and the situation grew worse with the development of new, post-Moby-Dick technologies such as factory boats and mechanical harpoons. In the 1930s nations began to demand regulation of whaling. The League of Nations supported a Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, but more than 46,000 whales were killed in the southern oceans in one year, 1937-38. In 1939 a 10-year moratorium on killing humpbacks was declared. The naval war probably protected whales more effectively -- except for those occasionally mistaken for submarines and killed by depth charges.
The International Whaling Commission was established in 1948. The original aim of the IWC was not to outlaw whaling, but to regulate it. Mathematical models attempted to estimate how many whales could be killed sustainably. Australia set up a commission to regulate the industry when humpback whaling began again in 1949, with whaling stations at Albany in Western Australia, Eden and Byron Bay in NSW and Queensland's Moreton Island.
Inspectors visited regularly during the winter season.
At that point, the humpback population was estimated at approximately 10,000. However the IWC's modelling seemed wrong, for throughout the 1950s, the numbers of whales continued to fall. By 1960, Moreton Island's Tangalooma station couldn't find enough whales to meet its quota, and closed in 1962, and the final station, Albany, in 1973. Why were the models wrong? It was only in the 1990s, when the old Soviet archives were opened, that zoologists discovered that during the 1950s and 60s, a Soviet whaling fleet was operating in Antarctic waters, killing large numbers of whales without any respect for the quotas imposed by the IWC. This slaughter made the mathematical model irrelevant, and whale numbers plummeted.
Eventually, in the Antarctic as well, the numbers of whales fell so low that harvesting became unprofitable. Since the 1970s the numbers of most species have been rising, but in some species, the selective slaughter of the largest animals has probably affected the gene pool so individual animals are smaller than the average size in earlier centuries.
For one baby humpback, the natural risks of life proved too great, but the man-made risks are no longer a worry, and fortunately the species is doing well these days. Long may this continue.
Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/as-the-whales-return-the-world-is-waking-up-to-its-bloodied-past/story-e6frg6zo-1226113593976
It was different for the whale that swam up the Derwent into central Hobart in 1852. The Colonial Times reported that "On Wednesday morning last much excitement was caused on the wharves by the novel appearance of a black whale which was first seen to approach Battery Point, thence swim along the New Wharf to Constitution Dock. Crowds of people gathered, shouting 'There he is' and 'Here he is' as a whale moved along the waterfront."
Immediately, those who could do so took to their boats to give chase. "They were the first to 'get fast' and to plunge the harpoon into the monster of the deep." The dead whale was hauled alongside, and cut up for its oil. It measured 12m, and was expected to yield 5 tonnes of oil.
Attitudes change. In the last few days there have been reports that Japan may be reassessing its "scientific whaling".Australia has a long history of whaling. Some of the ships of the First Fleet were whalers, and until the 1830s, whale oil was a more valuable export than wool. It continued to be important throughout the 19th century. In the 20th century, kerosene replaced whale oil, and plastics replaced whalebone, but the industry continued on a limited scale for another 70 years.
Whale numbers were already declining in the 19th century, and the situation grew worse with the development of new, post-Moby-Dick technologies such as factory boats and mechanical harpoons. In the 1930s nations began to demand regulation of whaling. The League of Nations supported a Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, but more than 46,000 whales were killed in the southern oceans in one year, 1937-38. In 1939 a 10-year moratorium on killing humpbacks was declared. The naval war probably protected whales more effectively -- except for those occasionally mistaken for submarines and killed by depth charges.
The International Whaling Commission was established in 1948. The original aim of the IWC was not to outlaw whaling, but to regulate it. Mathematical models attempted to estimate how many whales could be killed sustainably. Australia set up a commission to regulate the industry when humpback whaling began again in 1949, with whaling stations at Albany in Western Australia, Eden and Byron Bay in NSW and Queensland's Moreton Island.
Inspectors visited regularly during the winter season.
At that point, the humpback population was estimated at approximately 10,000. However the IWC's modelling seemed wrong, for throughout the 1950s, the numbers of whales continued to fall. By 1960, Moreton Island's Tangalooma station couldn't find enough whales to meet its quota, and closed in 1962, and the final station, Albany, in 1973. Why were the models wrong? It was only in the 1990s, when the old Soviet archives were opened, that zoologists discovered that during the 1950s and 60s, a Soviet whaling fleet was operating in Antarctic waters, killing large numbers of whales without any respect for the quotas imposed by the IWC. This slaughter made the mathematical model irrelevant, and whale numbers plummeted.
Eventually, in the Antarctic as well, the numbers of whales fell so low that harvesting became unprofitable. Since the 1970s the numbers of most species have been rising, but in some species, the selective slaughter of the largest animals has probably affected the gene pool so individual animals are smaller than the average size in earlier centuries.
For one baby humpback, the natural risks of life proved too great, but the man-made risks are no longer a worry, and fortunately the species is doing well these days. Long may this continue.
Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/as-the-whales-return-the-world-is-waking-up-to-its-bloodied-past/story-e6frg6zo-1226113593976