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Home , Baleen, Kulasekharapatnam

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" ~ I -:. • • . • 1 Do to cf r ece i pt ...... Accesaion No ......

Claos No. _·.. •• .. •••••• .. ••• .. • .. •• .. •• ..... ,H Marine Mammals

P. G. JACOB Central Marine Fisheries Research [nstitute, Cochin - [8

ThE) large scale mortality of about The animals belonging to th e sub 147 pilot , probably of the species order Pinnipedia of the order Carnivora Globicephala melaena, which occurred are exclusively marine. They live mainly in the South east coast of between on , molluscs and crustaceans. and Kulasekharapatnam fishing Walrus (o dobenidae), Seals (Phocidae ) villages in d uring January of and Sea lions (Otaridae) are the import­ this year attracted international atten­ ant m3rine mammalian carnivores. They tion. According to press reports their live in the Arctic, North Atlantic and the Pacific coasts respectively. Polar size ranged from 220 to 575 cms and they bears are also, to a lesser degree, weighed from 0 . 3 to 2 tons. Even though marine. They are confined to the Arctic experts have pointed out many reasons region, mainly on or near floating ice. like the attack of Killer Whales, suicide Fur-seals belonging to the division committed to balance the population, Otaridae are the most important, econo­ pollutants present in the seawater; dyna­ mically. Fur-seals were common in Falk­ mitting the coral reefs for making land, Kergurin and Prince Edwards cement and starvation due to lack of islands. But they were exploited by proper foed, their deaths remain still a indescriminate slaughter for their valu­ mystery. In this context, it will be inter­ able hide. Now they exist on the coasts esting to know more about the mammals of South Africa. Furse'\lls are also found which inhabit the and especially ;n the Pribrilof, Kommander and Kuril their commercial s ignificance to which Islands in the sea of Okhotsk. The in­ we have hardly paid attention. descrimiqate killing of these animals on Most of the important aquatic mam­ breeding grounds reduced 5 million mals belong to the orders Carnivora, seasl in 1800 to about llakh in 19 10. This and Sirenia. The ancestors of massacre was stopped in 191 1 by the all the present d ay aquatic mammals International Fur seal treaty by U.S.S.R., were land living creatures . They have U.S,A, and Japan. Under this treaty gradually adopted to aquatic life and killing was regulated. This paid back have undergone great changes in body and in the next 30 years the population form and other physiological characters. has increased many times.

June, [973 2l Skins of 3 year old male seals are and other marine vegetation. They are taken in June-July months. Hides are supposed to have evolved from the pri­ stripped from the body and consist of mitive mammalians from which pelt and subdermal fat. Pelts are washed stock the present day,! Elephants have and steeped in sea water till the adher­ also evolved. Halicore (Dugong) lives ing fat hardens. The hardened fat in the Indian especially in the () is removed and then the pelts and Palk Bay and in the are cured and salted. Then they are Australian s eas. Manatus (Manatee ) transferred to fur companies. Here lives in the rivers of South America and pelts are graded according to quality. Africa. Sea cows are very much limited They are stretched in frames, heated up in number and at present they are n ot and coarse hair is removed with a blunt commercially exploited. Rhytina (Hy­ knife. Then they are treated with seal d r odamalis) or " St e ller's Sea Cow" oil and tanned. Further finishing touches which lived in the Berring Strait b e­ make them soft. It takes about 90 days came extinct by about 176 by ruthless for processing one pelt. Sea lions are human slaughter for its flesh aud fat. also hunted for hide and oil in Cali­ Order Cetacea includes commercially fornia, Northern Berring sea, Newzea­ the most important aquatic mammals. land and Australia. There are 20 species Whales and dolphins are all members of Hair seals or Phocidae all over the of Ihis order. Their large scale capture world. Main fishery for Hair seals is in is known as '' or ' fish­ Newfoundland. Harp seal (Phoca green­ ery '. They are highly modified for landia) is another important species aquatic life by a streamlined body and commercially. Several other species fin-like fore limbs and tail. The hind are important livilihood for people living limbs are absent. The hairy covering around the Arctic region. Pelts of Hair­ of the skin is reduced to few b ristles seals yield high quality leather which is near the mouth. They have a thick layer used in the manufacture of suit cases of fat (blubber) beneath their skin which and Handbags . Blubber oil is used as a prevents the loss of heat and reduces lubricant. their specific gravity. Their nasal aper­ The Walruses (Odobenidae) are tures lie far back on the top of the head confined to the Arctic and Pacific icey as a single or double blowhole. Net­ shores and on floating ice. They under­ works of blood-vessels (retia mirabilia) take migrations on floating ice . They lie in various parts of the body for are also hunted f?r hide, oil and ivory storing oxygen to be used while under from their tusks. The Alaskan Walrus water. is now protected and except for food for The (Balaenoptera mus­ Eskimos, is prohibited from killing. cules) is easily the biggest creature the Marine mammals belonging to the world has ever seen. The Brachiosaurus, orde r Sirenia are heavy bodi9d animals biggest of all the dinosaurs probably with a flat tail. Their fore limbs are weighed 50 tons, but a fat 35 metre blue modified as paddles. They are popu­ whale may weigh upto 160 tons-bigger larly known as 'Sea-cows' or 'Mermaids'. than three Brachiosauruses, or 20 African They live in estuaries, bays and lagoons bull elephants. Only in the last 300 years and do not go to the open ocean. They have naturalists discovered that the are herbivorous, feeding art sea wee ds whale is not a fish but a mammal. Once

22 Seafood Export Journal a land creature which probably took to derable work has been done on the the water in search of food, it still has anatomy of sound production and hear­ the structure of 5 fingers burried in its ing of whales. These studies may be flippers, and deep in the flesh of its useful in future for the manipulation of body are two useless bones, the rem­ both whales and fish stocks. nants of what were once hind legs. Whale's most remarkable adaptation In the thousands of centuries since is the feeding apparatus of the baleen -I it left dry land, the whale has adapted whales, which include the blues and • itself superbly to life in water. Unlike finbacks (Figs. 3 & 4). The status of the it still must surface regularly baleen whales in marine food chain is to breath fresh air, but it can stay under very interesting considering their con­ water for as long as an hour at a time. sumption of comparatively minute foods. It breathes through the blowhole on top The baleen's tiny throat is just big of its head, letting out the air in a great enough to swallow its main diet of small gust which condenses into a spout. To crustaceans. It swims through a colony protect its eyes from salt water, it has a of shrimp or prawns with its mouth set of glands which secrete an oily sub­ open, then closes its jaw, raises its stance so that a whale is constantly shed- tongue and expels the water from its . ding great greasy tears. To protect its mouth through a vast soup strainer, the hearing. it has lost its external ear, leav­ baleen. Baleen is a thick fringe with ing only a small opening which closes numerous horny plates (baleen plates) up tight when it plunges to the great hanging from the palate in rows like the depths of the oceans. We do not know leaves of a book. It allows the water to much about the family life of the whales flow out but will not let the small crusta­ and dolphins. But judging from the ceans to escape. When the water has size of foetuses found in hunted whales, been expelled the glups biologists believe that the mating season the food left behind. is mainly June and July. In courting, big male (Fig, 5) spla­ Compared to the baleen whales the shes and rolls on the surface of the ocean toothed whales like the sFerm whale, to attract the female's attention striking (Fig. 1) eat very simply. They dive far love taps with its flippers that can be into the ocean depths and devour giant heard for miles. To feed the young the squids. Unlike the baleen whale, the mother whale rolls over on her side and sperm whale has a large gullet big special muscles pump milk down the enough to swallow whole, a 3 metre baby's throat - a "baby" that may be (or a man name'd Jonah). When 15 metres long. there is a shortage of food supply in For more than 2000 years it has been winter months, both the baleen and known that porpoises and whales make toothed whales live off their blubber, the sounds that m3n can hear. In fact in the storage blanket of oily fat just beneath mid-300's B. C. Aristotle wrote in Historia their skin. Animalium that the dolphin 'Squeaks and The order Cetacea is divided into moans in air'. Now we know that dol­ 2 suborders; Odon%ce/ii and Mys/a­ phins and whales make sound for com­ . cocetli, on the basis of the presesce or munication and navigation byecholoca­ absence of teeth in the adult animal. tion. Since Second World War, consi- Whales belonging to the suborder,Odon-

June, 1973 23 1

Legend to Figures Figs. I. Sperm whale, 2. , 3. Blue whale, 4. Finback, 5. Humpback.

24 Seafood Export Journal tocetii hava 40-60 conical teeth in their soapmaking. Now is converted mouth. Physeter or spermwhale has a into margarine. In the latter 195O·s the snout enormously swollen with the accu­ annual production of whale oil was about mulation of fat known as 'sp~ceti '. 500, 000 tonnes together with about Orca or killer whales are about 10 metre 140,000 tonnes of by products for food or long. They feed on fish and attack other fertilizers. These came from a world whales also. Porpoises or Phocaena and catcR of nearly 55,000 whales taken by Delphinus delphis or dolphins alsc be­ about 360 whale catchers operating from more than 20 factory ships and nearly long to this suborder, Platanista gange­ 50 shore stations. About 80% of the ticus or " Susu " is the Gangetic dolphin. whale catch was from around . Member s of the Suborder Mystacoceti are toothless. Instead they have filtering Many improvements in whale hunt­ ing techniques have been introduced devices known as baleen plates in their after second World War with the deve­ mouth. Blue whales belonging to this lopment of electronic aid s and recon­ suborder is the largest animals nature naissance air craft. Now there are sonar has ever produced. Most of the whales devices to frighten whales into flight of commercial importance like, blue with ultrasonic vibrations. By this they whales, humpbacks and right whales get out of breath and come often to the (Fig. 2) belong to this suborder. surface to blow air. Then they can be It is likely that stone age man hunted essily followed. An electric the smaller whales and dolphins. Ear­ which yields unspoiled carcass and liest recorded whaling centre is an kills more rapidly than the grenade har­ poon is a recently invented device. Alaskan whale hunting settlement dated back to A. D. 100 or 200. The first great Factory ships, killer ships and shore whaling nation of the world was England, stations form the backbone of the whale hunting team. Factory ship is a mam­ closely followed by Holland. They uti­ moth installation of 600 Feet length and lised the early techniques of the Basque 30,000 tonnes gross weight. It can pro­ , who had been whaling on a vide living quarters and 24 hours work small scale from 1200 A. D. The Yankees space for 450 men and can carry suffi­ of New England (U. S. A ) also entered cient apparatus to handle 50 tonnes of the business, but later they were driven raw material or 1 ordinary whale per away by competition from Norwegians, hour. The whale is hauled aboard Japanese, Russians and the Germans. through a ramp in the s.tern and f1ensed Svend Foyn, a Norwegian, deve­ and dismembered on the main deck. loped a method of hunting the blue and Below deck are the batteries of rotary pressure digesters for the blubb er and fin back whales which swim too fast. He bone, and the many centrifuges. Huge used a cannon, fix ing a heavy grenade vacuum evaporators supply fresh water harpoon, mounted in the bow of a steam to the boilers. ship. With this technique whaling be­ came a very profitable industry. Each factory ship requires from 6 to 8 killer ships to supply whales Whales provide food, oil and many and alse tankers to remove whale other products of commerce. Formerly oil, meat, meat meal and bone meal whale oil was used for lighting and and to bring fuel. Shore stations are

June, 1973 25 less expensive than factory ships. But consumption, baleen, , hides they require plenty of fresh water, deep and frozen glands for pharmaceuticals. and quiet anchorage for the catcher Secondary products are oils of all kinds, 'r' boats and whale carcasses, wide gently meat meal, bone meal, blood meat, meat sloping shores for hauling the whales extract, liver oil and canned meat. up the ramp to the desk and above all plenty of whales within 100 Chemically, resembles miles for atleast 4 to 6 continuous beef. Japan and Norway have for long months. included whale meat in their national diet. But recently there is some demand The whale is hunted from a killer for whale meat in other European ship and shot with a harpoon attached to countries. In many other parts of the a line. After death it is hauled close, world whale meat is definitely a sub­ inflated with air and eventually towed to stitute for beef, pork, mutton, fish and the shore station or factory ship. Inflat­ other culturally integrated food. ing the whale carcass with air is to pre­ i vent sinking when it is left floating and Ambergis, is a product resulting from to facilitate towing. After inflation a a morbid digestive process of sperm long bamboo pole with a big red marker whales. It is highly valued in perfume is planted on the carcass to aid in later industry as a fixative for odour. Most detection. But sometimes wind and often it is accidently found floating along currents will drift such a carcass and be the beaches on the surface of open lost. This type of loss amounted to 10% . ocean or in some cases in the lower To avoid this, now-a-days, a small 'Whale intes tine of dead sperm whales where it transmitter' emitting radio signals of a originates. It is soft and wo.xy to touch p articular wave length at regular inter­ or hard and friable depemding on its vals is attached to the marker and its dryness. It is black, greywhite, mottled s ignals are picked up by a direction grey and black or brown and yellow. finder. Drier specimens have a sweet musky smell. After bringing the whale carcass to Ivory is derived from the teeth of the factory ship or to the shore station, sperm whales, killer whales, Narwhals it is stripped off its blubber. The carcass and white porpoises. It is used for carv­ is then rolled underside up and dis­ ing chessmen, miniatures and combs. membered; the meat, glands and bone Endocrine glands like pituitary, thyroid being properly disposed of. All work and pancreas are used for the extraction is done with cables and winches by of hormones. Baleen or whale bone is experienced winchmen, cable tenders, flensers and lemmers or meat cutters. keratinous, s tiff, water proof and divi­ Blubber is processed in continuous sible by splitting into plates or fibres as rotary digesters. Oil is taken from parts fine as desired. It was used in the of meat also. Bones also have a high oil manufacture of stiffness of taffeta silk, content and must be utilised by law. dress stays and collars. But the advent Glands, lungs, intestine and other of steel "Feather bone " has replaced internal organs are utilised for the pro­ it. So baleen is nowadaya discarded. duction of vitamins, hormones and other Skins of white whale, Narwhal and bottlenose dolphin are used for making pharmaceutical preparations. Products leather. obtained from whales are d ivided into 2 categories. Primary products include Whale oils are graded on the basis fresh or salted meat for human or animal of colour and free fatty acid content. Oil

26 Seafood Export Journal is sold by weight and not by volume. of proper vessels and capital, India has Previously whale oil was used for illu­ not entered the whaling Industry so far. mination purposes. Today it is used for But, if properly developed, there is no the manufacture of margarine, candles doubt, it can be a very great e,. help 1-0 and soaps. Liver oil is high in vitamin A. our poor economy. After extraction of oil from bone s they Recently a lump of 'Ambergris' are dried and used as bone meal. Gelatin weighing about 97 Kg. was recovered from stick water, blood meal and meat from the coast of Kavaretti Island in the extract are other by products. Laccadive islands group (Malayala Whaling of the large species like Manorama Daily - 24 - 2 - 1973). Now sperm, sei, finback, blue and hump­ it is being kept at the Kavaretti Govern­ back is regulated by the International ment treasury. Samples from this lump Whaling Regulations (I. W. R). The In­ have been sent for chemical analysis to ternational Whaling Commission now assess the quality of the stuff. After specifies the season for hunting, usually detailed analysis it will be brought to January through March and it limits the office of the Laccadive Admini­ the annual catch. During the whaling stration at Calicut. The Laccadive season e ach expedition must report Fisheries Director has stated that there weekly by radio, announcing the num­ are records about the occurrence of ber of whales killed. When the annual Ambergris in plenty from around the limit is reached, the season is over dnd Laccadive islands in ancient times. The the ships head for home. present finding may prove to be a Various species of whales are found , treasure' to the economy of the in the Indian Ocean. But due to the lack islands. •

• NEW ENGLAND FISH COM.~~~! )0

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June, 1973 27