The Decline Of Whaling
By SIDNEY A. GOVENAR
WASHINGTON — The whaling
industry, once an important fac
tor in the growth of the United
States, has disappeared from this
country. The Fish and Wildlife
Service of the Interior Depart
ment reports that not one Ameri
can company holds a whaling li
cense.
Once before, in 1942, the U.S.
whaling industry disappeared, but
in 1943 a shore station was estab
lished in California with three
ships to supply it with whales.
This station operated in 1944 but
did not renew its license this year.
Norway is now the world’s most
important whaling nation, accord
ing to the Interior Department.
Recently Foreign Minister Lie of
Norway announced that his coun
try’s whaling industry will be re
sumed this season.
Lie said at least five whaling
expeditions are scheduled from
his country and one from Eng-1
land. England will use one float-1
ing whaling “factory” seized from j
the Germans. All the 12 “factor- j
ies” it owned before the war were.
lost in the battle of the Atlantic.'
U. S. Was Laadar
Before the war Europe’s whal
ing industry was minute by com
parison with the whaling indus
JONAH—The California whaling station where this worker was
photographed working in a whale's mouth in 1943 operated last
year, but didn't renew its license this year. Nobody did.
POLAR CURIO ,
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Gifts > I—II jr Watches
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AUTHORIZED KEEPSAKE JEWEIER
try of this country in the middle
of the last century. The U. S. In
dustry then engaged some 735
ships and 40,000 men. It repre
sented an investment of $40,000,
000 and involved an annual take
of whales worth about $8,000,000.
“These figures,” an Interior re
port says, “tell the story of the
death of a great industry through
at least three causes.
“First, the whaling resources
had been grossly mismanaged;
second: the rise of the petroleum
industry seriously reduced the do
mestic market for whale oil; third:
the United States had failed both
to develop new products from
whales and to keep abreast of new
methods of whaling.
“Meanwhile, other countries,
notably Norway, have maintained
highly profitable whaling indus
tries by improving effectiveness
of fishing methods, by developing
new whale products, and by com
pletely utilizing the catch.”
Revival Is Possible
The Interior report adds that if
new products and new uses for
whales could be developed in the
United States whaling might be
revived here.
“Norway and other European
countries refine and hydrogenate
whale oil so that it can be used
for edible purposes. A number of
other new whale products devel
oped in other countries might be
cited,” the report says.
“In the United States, however,
such products are made from
other sources, and whaling is not
profitable here in normal times,
even if whales were plentiful.”
The whale has come “danger
ously close to extinction,” accord
ing to the Interior Department.
The petroleum industry took
away the market for illuminating
oil and lubricants. The steel in
dustry took away the market for
whalebone, used in manufactur
ing such articles as corsets, um
brellas, and whipstocks.
And there are now available in
this country cheap substitutes for
all but two products of the whale;
spermaceti wax, used in cosmet
ics, and ambergris, a fixative in
perfume.
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LONDON — (jP) — Small boys
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