Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

In 1963 sub-let its lease to the international Fishery Company (IFC). This consortium
of three Japanese whaling companies applied to the FIG for a sealing licence, which
was granted after Albion Star had agreed to train Japanese sealers. (The government
needed to be satisfied that the Japanese would have the necessary expertise and
equipment to kill and process up to 6,000 bull elephant seals as permitted under the
regulations).
Sealing was now undertaken using experienced crew and ships from Albion Star
– Bogen on Albatros, Nilsen on Dias and Hauge on Petrel. (I had sailed with Hauge
and Bogen in 1951). The Japanese filled twelve positions on board: in the engine
room and galley and all the shore workers with the exception of the gunner. Each
ship had five Norwegians, including the chief engineer, mate and boatman, plus a
government sealing inspector. The arrangement s worked very well, despite
language problems and the Japanese adapted to the shore work, using long-handled
knives for flensing the blubber. The Japanese were late arriving at Grytviken for the
1963 season and sealing didn’t begin until September 1963. The sealing season lasted
only five weeks, 3.998 seals were taken and yielded 7,156 barrels of oil. In 1964, both
IFC and Nippon Suisan Kaisha (NSK) applied for sealing licences and 5,147 seals
were taken. NSK had an experimental licence to kill up to 100 bulls in February 1964
to familiarise their crews with sealing methods. This yielded 2.01 barrels per seal, the
highest ever recorded for autumn sealing, but in spring 1964 only IFC had a licence.
In the final three seasons of sealing the mean age of the catch had stabilised at about
7.7 years, just above my target for sustained yield. Government licensed sealing at
South Georgia ended in 1964 after 54 years with the stock in an optimal state
condition; better than had been achieved in any other elephant seal population.
Some 260,860 elephant seals had been taken yielding 476,742 barrels of oil or 1.83
barrels per seal. Over the whole period of government licensed whaling and sealing
at South Georgia, 1910 – 1965 seal oil represented 16.3% of total oil production - not
inconsiderable; its probably came close to meeting the running costs of Grytviken
whaling station. The five species of whales caught totalled 54,473, yielding 2,769,456
barrels of oil plus other products, including 202,105 [long] tons of guano, frozen
meat, meat meal and salted liver as well as 475 tons of baleeen.
Conclusion.
Seals are now protected under the 1975 Falkland Islands Dependencies
Conservation ordinance [and under the 1982 Convention on the Conservation of
Antarctic Marine Living Resources].
Although these methods fifty years ago may have been crude compared to today,
the management research I had accomplished was way ahead of its time. This was
primarily due to the fact that I had developed an accurate, precise (to within months)
method for estimating the age of a mammal, which allowed me to construct agespecific
models of growth and of biomass. What had gone before in research on seal
biology was very broad and gross. Unreliable estimates of age were based on crude
parameters, broad age classes – based on rough biometrics analyses, skull suture
closure, and a lot of guesswork. For the first time it was now possible to monitor age
changes in the commercial catch, as had been possible with fish for many years. It
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