The Irish Whale FisheryAuthor(s): R. F. ScharffSource: The Irish Naturalist, Vol. 19, No. 11 (Nov., 1910), pp. 229-233Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25523703 .

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November. 1910. The Irish Naturalist. 229

THE IRISH WHALE FISHERY.

BY R. F. SCHARFF, PH.D.

Some years ago the startling news was published in the

daily papers that an establishment, with the necessary vessels

and gear for the capture of whales, was to be set up on the

west coast of Ireland. It had not previously occurred to

anyone that whales in sufficient numbers to make such an

establishment profitable, could be obtained off the Irish coast.

Even when, ten years ago, I wrote my short paper on the

whales of Ireland for the Irish Naturalist^ these animals were

looked upon as interesting stragglers to our marine area

rather than native mammals.

But the rumour was perfectly correct The Aranmore

Whaling Company chartered steamers and built a number of

sheds on Inishkea, near the peninsula called the Mullet in the

County Mayo, with the object of capturing whales and pre

paring their carcases for trading purposes. More recently another company, known as the Blacksod Whaling Company, started the same business on the eastern shores of the Mullet, at a place called Elly Point. Both of these companies are

under Norwegian management. The fishermen of Norway have always had a taste lor this kind of work, which, indeed, calls forth all their best qualities, pluck, hardihood, and

endurance.

Whether these undertakings pay does not concern us here.

Our interest in the fisheries lies in the fact that they give us

an insight into a branch of our mammalian fauna which we

should scarcely have obtained by any other method. Nothing short of capturing a whale will enable us to identify it satis

factorily. As I mentioned in my list of whales, and their relations the

porpoises and dolphins, these creatures are all typical mam

malia. They are warm-blooded, they breathe by means of

lungs, they possess the vestiges, at any rate, of hairs on their

bodies, and their young are brought forth alive and nourished

with the milk of the mother. Their skeletons, moreover, are

those of mammals and not offish, and only externally are their

1 Scharff, R. F.; A list of the Irish Cetacea. Irish Naturalist^ vol. ix.,

pp. 83-90, 1900. A

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230 The Irish Naturalist November*

bodies fish-like. We can distinguish two well-defined groups, the toothless or Whalebone Whales and the Toothed

Whales.

Hitherto the following five whalebone whales had been

observed on the Irish coast, viz. .?the Southern Right Whale, the Hump-backed Whale, Sibbald's Rorqual, the Common

Rorqual, and the Cesser Rorqual. Whether we have two Irish Right Whales or only one kind

is still uncertain. The Norwegians, as Mr. Holt informs me,

distinguish between the " Greenlandshvalen

M and the " Nord

kapereu," two whales of the Right Whale type, but what they

captured and brought to Inishkea in June, 1908, were all

Nordkaperen, and were identified by Prof. Collett as Balaena

glacialis. It remains uncertain, therefore, whether the other

Right Whale (Balaena australis?B. biscayensis), frequents our coasts, or whether the old records are applicable to the "

Nordkaper."

The Right Whale is distinguished from the other whalebone

whales by the absence of the dorsal fin aud of the peculiar long furrows found on the throat of the other species.1

The value of the five Irish Right Whales taken in 1908 was

estimated by Prof. Collett as amounting to from ^1,500 to

^3,000. A single one of the plates from the mouth of a

full grown whale is worth about two guineas, and as a

quarter of a ton of whalebone is sometimes obtained from

a large specimen, the value of that article alone is about

?400. I may mention that there is still a curious miscon

ception as to the real nature of the substance called "

whalebone." Some people persist in believing that whale

bones are the whale's ribs. Others, possibly misled by the

old feudal law that the tails of all whales belong to the Queen as a perquisite, to furnish Her Majesty's wardrobe with whale

bone, think that it comes from the animal's tail. The fact, however, is that although all whalebone whales start life with

rudimentary teeth, these soon disappear and are replaced by a horny substance which grows out from the upper jaw in

long sheets of triangular plates. The plates are attached to

the roof of the mouth and are longest towards the middle of

it. Their outer edge is smooth, the inner frayed into innum

merable hair-like processes. When the whale opens its mouth

1 Collett, R?Balaena glaciahs. Proc* Zool. Soc. London, 1909, i.,

pp. 91-98.

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i9*o. Scharff.?The Irish Whale Fishery. 231

and floats along the surface of the water for a time, numerous

minute organisms, chiefly surface Crustacea, find their way into the mouth. When this is closed again, the water is effect

ually strained out through the sieve-like plates, while the

internal hairs prevent the food from escaping. Further

particulars will be found in M r. Beddard's work on whales.1 The general use of whalebone for ladies' dresses is, of course,

well known, but another use that is made of the fine internal

fringes has been revealed to me by Mr. W. S. Green, the Chief

Inspector of Irish Fisheries. He informs me that they are now employed for the manufacture of barristers'wigs, because

they are light and retain the curl better than ordinary hair. It may not also be generally known that, in the manufacture of high class silks, the fine threads of whalebone are sometimes

used for stiffening the tissue.

The whalebone or baleen in the Right Whale is perfectly black in colour. All the other whalebone whales possess whalebone of a much inferior quality, and all have great furrows along the throat and a back fin.

The largest living mammal, the Blue Whale (Balaenoptera

Sibbaldt) or *' Blauhval" as the Norwegians call it, belongs to

this group. Mr. R. M. Barrington tells me that one measur

ing 88 feet long was obtained off Inishkea in July, 1908. Three other species of the same genus occur off the Irish

Coast, viz.: the Common Rorqual, called ?" Finhval" by the

Norwegians, the Northern or Rudolph's Rorqual, or

"Seihval," and the smallest of all, the Lesser Rorqual, or "

Vaagehval." Finally, the so-called Humpback or "Knolhval," is easily distinguished from the other whalebone whales by its enormously long white flippers. On the 10th July, 1908,

Mr. Barrington wrote to me mentioning that 42 whales

belonging to the following species had passed through the

factory on Inishkea:

Right Whale .. .. 5 specimens

Common Rorqual . . ..

5 ,,

SibbalcVs Rorqual .. . . 4 ?

Rudolphi's Rorqual ... 27 ?

Humpback .. .. 1 ?

42 ?

* Beddard. F. E. A Book of Whales. London, 1900. A 2

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232 The Irish Naturalist November,

Of the toothed whales only the Sperm Whale or Cachalot,

(Kaskelot in Norwegian) seems to be of any commercial

*value. To Mr. R. J. Ussher I am indebted for the information

that four Sperm Whales had been obtained off the west coast

of Ireland last June. The whale fisheries have not therefore added much to our

knowledge of this group, and the revised list of the Irish

Whales, Porpoises and Dolphins is as follows :?

Whalebone Whales.

Southern Right Whale {Balaena australis) ?

Northern ? ,, (B, glacialis). Common Rorqual (Balaenopteta musculus). Sibbald's ,, (B. Sibbaldi). Northern ? (B. borealn). Lesser ? (B, rostrata).

Humpbacked Whale (Megaptera boops).

Toothed Whales.

Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus). Bottle-nosed Whale (Hyperoodon rostralus). Beaked Whale {Mesoplodon bidetis).

Porpoise (Phocoena communis). Killer (Orca gladiator), Ca'in Whale (Globicephalus melas), Risso's Dolphin (G?ampusgriseus)

White-beaked Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirosMs), White-sided Dolphin {L. acutus). Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis)* Bottle-nosed Dolphin (Tursiops tursio).

Sometimes I am asked by visitors to the Museum what is

done with the carcases of the whales killed by these whale

fishery companies. Formerly the value of these creatures

consisted mainly in the large quantities of oil extracted from

their bodies. Since the introduction of coal gas and of

mineral oil, the consumption of animal oil for lighting pur

poses has considerably decreased, but other uses have been

found for whale oil. The oil is pressed out of the blubber

which lies under the skin. As the blubber is about one foot

thick in a full-grown Right Whale, a single large specimen

yields about 30 barrels of oil. Sperm oil or spermaceti,

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*$to. Scharff.? The Irish Whale Fishery. 2$$

which is obtained from the head of the Sperm Whale, is much used as an ingredient in ointments, and an ordinary sized animal yields as much as 12 barrels. Mr. Southern ascertained that 1843 barrels of oil were turned out this year

by the Elly Point Company and 1500 by ihe Inishkea Com

pany, and Captain Bruun very kindly gave me some further

particulars about the latter which may be of interest to the

readers of the Irish Naturalist. The two steamers engaged in this fishery obtained 76

whales during their first year. They were mostly Common

Rorquals and Northern Rorquals. During the last two

years 124 whales were caught, but it must be remembered that four steamers are now employed by the companies, instead of two, as during the first year. Captain Bruun stated that every particle of the carcases was used and turned into oil, cattle-food, guano and bone manure. The blubber

yields the best oil, the bones the second best, while even the

intestines contain some saleable oil. The flesh is used for

cattle-food. After the bones and intestines have been boiled, and the oil extracted, the remainder is dried and ground down. Altogether the business, though not a very savoury one, would seem to be rather lucrative, but Captain Bruun states that the expenses are so heavy that little profit remains.

National Museum Dublin.

OBITUARY. JOHN COTTNEY.

It is with regret that we have to record the early death of Mr. John

Cottney, Clogher, Hillsborough, who has occasionally contributed

notes to this Journal, and who was a regular reader of its pages for

many years. Mr. Cottney was a farmer of a type that is far too rare in

Ireland, and from his early youth he took an intense interest in nature

in general and birds in particular. He possessed a really fine and

valuable collection of eggs well displayed in a good cabinet, which he

never tired of showing to interested visitors. From his daily occupation Mr* Cottney was in constant touch with nature and his observations had

the true ring of original research. Possessed of few books, his.

knowledge of birds, which was extensive, was mostly acquired by intimate

acquaintance with the wild creatures themselves He taught himself

the art ot taxidermy, and gained considerable proficiency in mounting birds. Always ready to help others, he made many friends among the

naturalists of the North, by whom his early death is deplored*

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