The Whale-Fishery in IrelandAuthor(s): R. F. ScharffSource: The Irish Naturalist, Vol. 22, No. 8 (Aug., 1913), pp. 145-147Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25524139 .

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August, 1913. The Irish Naturalist 145

THE WHALE-FISHERY IN IRELAND.

BY R. F. SCHARFF, PH.D., F.L.S.

in the Report of the eighty-second meeting of the British

Association, held at Dundee last year, appears a very

interesting series of notes on the Belmullet whaling station in the west of Ireland. These notes form the report fur

nished by Mr. Burfield to the Committee appointed by tlie Association to investigate the biological problems incidental to the Belmullet whaling station.1

In a, short article published two years ago,2 I indicated the number and kind of whales captured in 1910 by the two Irish Whaling Companies. This was all the informa tion I could obtain at the time. The Blacksod Whaling

Company in 1910 caught 55 whales. In 1911, no less than

63 individuals were procured. But Mr. Burfield supplies us with many other noteworthy particulars.

Commercial.

The sixty-three whales yielded 2,200 barrels of oil, or

about 366 tons, the market price being about ?23 per ton.

We note that most of the oil goes to Glasgow, where it is

apparently sold to manufacturers of explosives, who extract

glycerine from it. Between six and seven tons of whale

bone were gathered from these whales. The price obtained

was ?45 per ton. Much of the whalebone is sent to Paris, where a considerable quantity appears to be used in the

manufacture of silk fabrics in the form of fine threads.

The residue from the meat and bones is dried and ground down, the mixture being sold as guano.. The ground nieat

alone is exported to Norway for eattle food. Still further

by-products, such as glue, may be obtained in future from

this industry.

1 Report Brit. Assoc. (Dundee, 1912), pp. 145-186, 1913. Irish Naturalist, vol. xx., 1911, p. 141.

A

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146 TheIrishNaturalist* August;

Breeding of Whales.

Only one young whale is born at a time, twins being

very rare. The young are born in the winter or early

spring, and are said, to be from a quarter to a third the

length of the mother.

Size and Colour of Whales.

In a brief review of the whales, porpoises and dolphins observed in Irish waters,1 I endeavoured to give the sizes

of the specimens so far as they were known to me. But

the measurements, which were mostly extracted from

newspaper reports, were frequently doubtfully accurate, while in many cases none were obtained at all. Hence, we knew very little from actual observation of the size of

these creatures frequenting the Irish seas. Mr. Burfield

paid special attention to this subject. The largest Irish whale is the Blue Whale (Balaenoptera

Sibbaldi). It was reported to me that in 1908 a specimen was captured at Inishkea, measuring 88 feet, while Mr.

Burfield records one of 84 feet. All the Blue Whales seen

by Mr. Burfield were females.

Of the Common "

Finner," as it is often called (Balaen

optera musculus)* a skeleton of which is suspended from

the ceiling in our Natural History Museum, few exact

measurements had been recorded* Mr. Burfield gives no

less than fifty-three. The largest specimen measured, which was a female, was 75 feet long, the largest male being 68 feet.

. As it has been suggested by some authorities that the

Blue Whale and Common Finner might prove to be

varieties of the same species, Mr. Burfield's remarks on

this point are noteworthy. In the colour and arrangement of the grooves there is no great difference between the two, but the dorsal fin of the Blue Whale is relatively much

smaller than that of the other. The whalebone of the

Blue Whale is thicker than that of the Finner, and of a

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

pp. 83-91, 1900.

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tc>i3. ScHARFF.^The Whale Fisher}* in Ireland. l^f

uniform blue-blaMc colour. Itf the Finrler the coloto1 is

variable; but the bristles art never black as in the^BIiie

Whale, being generally of a yellowish colour.

Food! -

As a rule, the two kinds of whale referred to liveiex^

clusively on minute surface-forms of animal life* Occasion

ally/however* the "

Finner," at any rate, seems to prefer

larger morsels. Mr. Burfield found that the stomachs of

three of the "

Finners "

contained the remains of small

fish?apparently young herrings. All the other whales

examined were full of a small red crustacean, which is

known as "

krill" among whale fishers.

Parasites, "

The parasitic Copepod Penella balaenoptera was found on the body of some of the Finners, while Balaenophilus unisetus was noticed on the baleen of both whales. The

internal parasites Monostomum plicatum and Echino

rhynchus brevicollis were identified.

There are also valuable observations in Mr. Burfield's

report on the eye, on some problematic organs and on the

foetuses of Balaenoptera musculus arid B. Sibbaldi.

National Museum, Dublin.

A FEW SPECIES OF NEMATODA FROM CO. DUBLIN. : BY T* n. HEWITT, A.R.C.SC.L

: Ih addition to the notoriously destructive species Tylen chut demiiairix JtuKn, the following five species of Nema^ to&es Were found in Narcissus bulbs, &rown at Glasheviii,

during'; the past winter :^-Cephal6bus striatum Bastian;

Cephalobus idngicaudatur Biitschii; Mortohysterd bulbifera De Mail ;-: Doryluimus hri^ta^dMus,>jfeu??eKli; kh&

Rhabdites aspera* Biitschii. A 2

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