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The North Atlantic Fisheries, 1100-1976 - University of Hull

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“the sound between Koltur and Vágoy”. 119 Still today, blue as well as fin<br />

whales are regularly seen in the Hestfjørður and Vestmannasund. 120<br />

Moreover, the old whalers say that in spring time, late April to the<br />

beginning <strong>of</strong> June, the whales were hungry and moved quickly north.<br />

This was visible in the number <strong>of</strong> barrels <strong>of</strong> oil coming out <strong>of</strong> Spring as<br />

against Autumn shot whales. A Spring blue whale produced less oil than<br />

an Autumn shot fin whale. 121<br />

Table IV. Number <strong>of</strong> different whale species caught in the Faroe Islands,<br />

1709-1995<br />

Pilot whale 242,112<br />

Bottlenose whale 757<br />

Blue whale 273<br />

Fin whale 7,481<br />

Sei whale 2,139<br />

Minke whale 99<br />

Humpback 208<br />

Sperm whale 701<br />

Bowhead 7<br />

Bottlenose dolphin 927<br />

Porpoise 18<br />

White-sided and white-beaked dolphins 5,148<br />

Killer whale 189<br />

As an aside, it may be mentioned, that the importance <strong>of</strong> whaling<br />

globally is shown by the fact that as late as World War II, the shipyard <strong>of</strong><br />

Harland & Wolf at Belfast, Ireland, delivered a Whalecorvet, a boat<br />

which was easy to change in function between a whaling boat and a<br />

warship. 122<br />

Conclusions<br />

119 Risting, 1922; Tønnesen, 1967.<br />

120 Bloch, 1993.<br />

121 Risting, 1922; Tønnesen, 1967.<br />

122 Tønnesen and Johnsen, 1982.<br />

58

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