The Republican journal., 1911-03-09
Where Whales are Caught In
Nets.

Nets.
The Most Remarkable Sport In the World.
Just south of the Bay of Islands, New
Zealand, where, in land-locked harbor,
beautiful Wangamumu nestles in the
shadow of Cape Brett, the Messrs. Cook
Brothers have established their whaling
station, and here is carried on the unique
business Of catching whales by means of
nets.
Most conservative of deep-sea deni-
zens, the whale keeps its, sea-tracks
with almost the same unerring fidelity
as ocean-liners, and in autumn the schools
of leviathans moving south to Polar seas
hug the mainland of North New Zealand,
rounding Cape Brett, close inshore; here,
making an ofipg, they sweep again to
seaward, to pursue their voyage.
Little is known Of the migrations of
cetaceans, but it is supposed that, going
north, by a different route, to warmer
seas, the schools, when calving time is
over, return south for the winter, follow
ing the age-old track that brings them
within touch of land.
Like ships in tropic seas, their six
months sojourn in !ine-waters has suf-
feed to give to the whales huge bodies,
a thick crust of clinging barnacles and
long hamper of green sea-grass. Many
account for the presence of the monsters
inshore by desire to rid their bodies of
the intolerable itch of the parasites.
These they dislodge by rubbing against
the rocks strewn thickly in the landward
passage.
However this may be, fair number
of the travelling whales, hugging the
shore more closely than their fellows,
pass through a narrow channel, just I'M
der Cape Brett, that separates cluster
of outlying rocks from the mainland.
This is the spot chosen for the placing of
the nets.
No ordinary fsherman's gear will
serve. The nets used to stop monster
swimming with the momentum of hun
dred-ton mass of bone and sinew are,
necessarily, out of the common. With
a stretch of five or six hundred feet and
a depth Of two hundred, the nets, meshed
to seven feet and made of three-eighths
inch wire rope, are hung on strong wire
cables buoyed by huge floats and drogues.
From high vantage-posts along the
coast watchers scan the sea-scape for
the first sign of the distant spoutings
that herald the approaching school.
At the cry of There she blowsp' out
go the steam-launches to place the nets,
three in number, that suffice to close the
narrow channel These, unanchored,
are allowed to float loose, the ends of
each slightly overlapping. Kept taut by
their own weight, they hang stretched
on the float line, an invisible curtain of
Wire mesh barring the water-run.
No human fastening has yet been in
vented that would stop the rush of
charging whale. The principle of the
detached floating net is not to stop, but
to so hamper the monster with a gossa-
mer of wire rope that he falls an easy
prey to the hunters. For this reason,
also, the nets are so placed that on
striking" an entangled whale may
trace" seaward or sound downwards,
carrying the enveloping net, without
fear of disturbing the remaining two.
When the nets are in position the
launches and attendant whale boats,
with their crews, take up their stations
at some distance to watch for the up
heaval and dancing fioat-line that marks
the striking" of a whale.
Often a whales presence is first indi-
Gated by great masses of broken barna-
Giles and torn sea-grass that come float
ing upward to the surface as the whale,
foundering among the rocks of the sea-
floor, eases himself with delighted
scratchings in the depths.
In the boats all is tense expectancy
and ordered preparation. Harpoon guns
are loaded and made ready, lines are
carefully ''fiaked down" in the tubs,
lances are looked to, and everyone is on
qui vive.
Suddenly sort of shudder runs
through the sea. There are tossing bill
lows and wild commotion away by the
bobbing fioat-lines. "Hurrah! she's
struckn' is the cry.
Away go the boats, each racing to be
first FAST to the struggling fish" and
so earn the bonus that rewards the Win
ming crew.
A mighty, gray-black head, entangled
in clinging web of wire, rears from
out the water. Up, up, it goes till a
huge bulk of body towers a good fifty
feet in the air, its side fins thrashing
wildly in smother of foam. 1t curves
in an arch and then, like an arrow, down
go whale and net together for the
''sound"
Not for long, though. The upward
drag of punched net-hoats and its neces-
sity for breath bring the fish" quickly
to the surface-a- spouting, snorting,
wallowing mass; mad with rage, wild
with terror of the unknown clinging hor-
ror that envelops it.
Bang! bang! go the guns from each
boat, in quick succession. Both irons
are home and well placed. A wild
culver of flukes and fins, and the whale
either sounds" again or "races" along
the surface, towing the boats after it at
express speed.
But the net holds fast, and at each
new effort for freedom the victim be-
comes more hopelessly 'wound-up'' than
before.
Soon, exhausted with futile strug-
Cling, the whale comes to rest, and
there is momentary cessation of the
mad fight, as the leviathan pauses for
breath. Huge painting air-gasps are
plainly audible aboard our launch at
distance of half mile.
The crews are quick to seize the op-
portunity. With the lance-men ready in
the bow the boats sweep in, one on either
side. ''Steady with the lance. - 'Nowv'
steel blades drive deep for
the heart behind the pectoral fins
A SILVER, Kissing spout of water and
blood, wallow and roll of the huge,
carcass, flashes of red and
white foam in the sunlight, and the black
heave of twenty-foot fin that for one