6. Review of Previous Season's Catch

(from "Chairman's Report of the Fifteenth Meeting")



Mr. Vangstein in presenting his review of the last season's statistics to the Commission once more referred to the difficulties he had encountered in obtaining all the particulars necessary to produce complete statistics of the Antarctic catch. Up to the time of the Fifteenth Meeting he had still not received all the necessary particulars of one of the expeditions. However, information on the number of whales caught and the production of oil was complete.

The total Antarctic pelagic whaling catch was 11,306 blue whale units made by 17 expeditions compared with 15,252 units caught by 21 expeditions in the previous year. The average catch per catcher day was 0.50 blue whale units, about the same as in the previous season. However, as the catching boats were fewer and more powerful this figure should have been higher, and is an indication of poorer conditions.

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