The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-06-08
AVENGING JONAH
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
BY Frederic j. Haskin. Director
Washington D C.


meat in an effort to increase their own
profits and supplement the nations
depleted food supply. This report has
excited so much interest that the ou-
reau of fisheries here has had num-
Der of inquiries as to the edibility or
whales and the chances of creating a
national market for their flesh The
government experts are looking into
the matter, but are not prepared as
yet to publish their conclusion.
No government investigation is
needed to determine the ed1blllty OF
the whale. In japan whale meat
both fresh and canned, is staple ana
plays a very important part in the
diet of the poorer classes who cannot
afford to buy beef. In the island en-
pire the heart, liver, tongue and IN,
testines of the whale are eaten as well
as the meat and blubber. The meat
of the humpback whale, which is con-
sidered the most desirable, sometimes
sells for as much as Is cents pound,
but is generally obtainable Tor ABOUT
half that amount. Roy Chapman An
drews who has spent much time at
the shore stations of the modern whal-
ing industry studying the great sea
creatures for the American museum
of natural history, states that ne mas
eaten large quantities of the meat ana
has found it both palatable ana
healthful He says that chemical
analysis shows it to contain SO per
cent of digestible material, whereas
beef has seldom more than SO per
cent 1t is described as coarse meat
which tastes something like venison
but has a very distinctive flavor The
favorite way of serving it in Japan
is raw, with chopped vegetables ana
sauce. Great quantities OF 1t are
cooked, canned and sent to all parts
of the empire. This canned whale is
said to be superior to great many
of the ported meats sold in the Amer1-
can market.
The attempt to create a market for
whale meat in this country is for sew
eral reasons worthy of support. Most
persons are not aware of the size OF
the modern whaling industry. Every
one has heard of the old time New
England whalerS who were driven out
of business by the wide use of petrol
cum about the time of the Civil war.
They kept the lamps of the nation
burning for a century, and succeeded
in nearly discriminating the three most
valuable species of whale-the right,
the bow-head and the sperm whales
While the old whaling captains
were writing their memoirs of this
vanished industry, a young Norwe-
gian was busily inventing a new meth
Cd of whaling by which the remaining
abundant species, the blue whales and
! fin whales, might be profitably hunt
ed. Way back in the seventies, the
harpoon gun and the shore station
were being perfected and now this
new whaling business has grown into
a world industry with products worth
| seventy millions of dollars annually.
1t is carried on up and down the
| Pacific coast from Mexico to Alaska,
where the whales congregate in i'm
J mense herds on certain rich feeding
| grounds; from South Africa, Japan,
/ from the Shetland islands. the South
Orkneys, and Falklands and South
Georgia; from Spitzbergen, the Faroes
| the Hebrides, Greenland and the Gala
| pages. A peculiar thing about the in
dustry is that practically all of the
| harpooners, who are generally also the
captains of the vessels come from
Tonsberg, the little Norwegian town
where Svend Foyn, the inventor OF
the harpoon gun, lived.
The Importance of creating a mar
ket for whale is due to the fact that,
besides greatly increasing the value
of the industry and adding to the
worlds food supply, it might be the
means of saving the whale from ex-
termination. At present vast guam
titles of meat are wasted, merely the
blubber being boiled out of it before
it is thrown away. If this wasteful
n. ethod were abolished, each whale
would furnish much more occupation
to the industry Also, the business
would come into more general notice,
and the necessary restrictive legisla-
ton, which might save the whales
| would be more apt to be enacted. In
Newfoundland, the whales were Sc
reduced in numbers after fifteen years
of modern shore whaling that the in
dustry dwindled to few small estab-
lishments. Now the number taken
showing a slow but steady decrease
Mr.. Andrews predicts that unless
saved by protective legislation, the
whale cannot survive the century AL
-, faxr Ion = r
gard to whaling, there are none that
are effective. In the subantarctic is
lands, especially, the whale is being
rapidly externlinated by means of the
steamers carrying apparatus for the
trying out of blubber, from which the
smaller vessels operate Not only al
of the meat, but often all but the
thickest part of the blubber, is thrown
away. A whale that would be worth
several thousand of dollars in Japar
yields only about $40 or $50 to these
wasteful methods. In this way al
industry which is worth millions o.
dollars is being rapidly destroyed.
This new method of hunting whales
from shore stations, while it threat
ems the determination of the race, ha:
also afforded science its first good op
portunity to study them. From the
decks OF the whaling vessels many
, new and interesting observations O.
the movements and habits of whale!
have been made, while at the shore
stations where the huge bodies are
pulled out for butchering, the frs
accurate measurements and record:
of color end marking have been OBJ
7 tanned AS almost everyone knows
: the whale is mammal the Sd me a.
, man and the ether higher forms o
animal life. There is no doubt tha
it is descended from some mamma
which lived on land in former geo
= logic ages, and was forced by SOM
sudden change in its environment t.
adapt itself to a life in the sea
still breatfes air, but is able to holC
= its breath for a long time, and i
= known to stay under water for al ieas
forty minutes at a time. How leel
it is able to go no one knows. It wa
lmerly supposed that the pressur