Translation 2783

266
from a. few tens up to some hundreds of these whales each season.
It is difficult te obtain more precise figures, as Bryde's whales
are usually included with Sei whales. Soviet whalers took Bryde's
whales (66 of them) for the first time in 1970.
The yield of oil is somewhat less than that from sel whales;
Bryde's whales are taken mostly to obtain their flesh, which is
•
used for human food.
Bryde's whales 11.3, 12.0, 13.1, and 14.0 metres in length
weighed respectively 9.27, 11.47, 14.0, and 16.83 tons. The weight.
of Bryde's whales is from 8% to 12% more than that of sel whales,
mostly on account of the blubber (including that in the abdominal
cavity), the head, the lower jaw, and the viscera (up to 30-35);
the weight of the flesh of sel whales is 10% greater.
At a close estimate, the number of Bryde's whales in the
Bonin Islands and Sanriku regions (including Kenan) is put at from
5,000 to 18,000, and the Permissible kill at from 200 to 300.
Lesser Rorqual (Balaenoptera acutorostrata)
Two herds. of lesser rorquals live in the western part of the
North Pacific. j7;arl -y. in spring (from February to May) lesser rorquals
arrive at the northwestern coast of the island of Kyushu from
the south. The migration takes place near the coasts. In May and
June larger whales are seen near the ±ip southwestern tip of Hokkaido,
on the Sea of Japan side.
The other herd arrives at the .eastern coasts of Japan from
the south. In the Sanriku recion their number increases until May.
Thence they travel to the east coast of Hokkaido, some of them staying
in the Kurile Islands region throughout the summer, while others
go farther to the northnortheast and are seen in summer in the waters
from Kronotskii Bay to the Gulf of Anadyr, some of them passing into
the Chukchi Sea, from which they return in October.
In the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean lesser rorquals
winter near California. In spring they begin to move north along
the coast; the first arrivals reach Vancouver Island in March, but
most of them arrive later. They are observed in summer in the Gulf
of Alasl:a and nea:r the &loutian islands.
Those that travel northward are, as a rule, adults, whereas
most of the juveniles remain in lower latitudes.