1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:04,760 This programme contains scenes some viewers may find upsetting. 2 00:00:04,760 --> 00:00:09,000 'A few hundred years ago, the oceans were home to millions of whales. 3 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:13,080 'But then we found they were incredibly useful animals.' 4 00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:15,360 Every single minute of people's days 5 00:00:15,360 --> 00:00:19,160 would have been surrounded by whale products. 6 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:23,040 Whales were seen as commodities to produce benefits for people. 7 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:28,640 'I've seen how whaling became an important British industry 8 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:32,520 'beginning with hunts in Scotland and forays into the Arctic, 9 00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:36,040 'before a British Antarctic island became the centre 10 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:38,240 'of a global enterprise.' 11 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:42,040 The whaling industry in the Antarctic 12 00:00:42,040 --> 00:00:46,560 was by far the biggest fishery... fishery that there's ever been. 13 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:50,040 'Now I discover how a breakthrough in ship design 14 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:52,360 'transformed the industry.' 15 00:00:52,360 --> 00:00:55,280 It's incredible, what went on on these ships. 16 00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:58,040 'And why Britain became reliant on the whale 17 00:00:58,040 --> 00:01:00,040 'as an essential source of fat.' 18 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:01,280 Desperate. 19 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:04,960 The whole of Western Europe was desperate for anything to eat. 20 00:01:04,960 --> 00:01:08,760 'And I continue to explore the world's largest whaling station 21 00:01:08,760 --> 00:01:12,040 'to fathom why it was abandoned in the 1960s.' 22 00:01:12,040 --> 00:01:15,040 There can't be another room like this in the world. 23 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:20,040 An astonishing little capsule of late 1950s life. 24 00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:22,760 'For decades, biologists had realised 25 00:01:22,760 --> 00:01:26,520 'that whale populations were being put under extreme pressure.' 26 00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:30,040 So why did it take so long for the scientists' warnings 27 00:01:30,040 --> 00:01:32,040 to be listened to? 28 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:34,840 The situation was absolutely disastrous. 29 00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:40,040 I don't think we have the right to bring any species to extinction. 30 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:44,040 'If I want to understand, I have to put modern environmental guilt 31 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:48,280 'to one side and see the world through the eyes of the time.' 32 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:51,000 Why were whales so valuable 33 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:55,040 and what was it like to chase them deep in the Antarctic ice? 34 00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:58,000 What was it like to be a whale hunter? 35 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:02,400 Nowadays I'm one of the youngest whalers alive. 36 00:02:03,400 --> 00:02:08,120 There won't be many of us left to tell the story about whaling. 37 00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:10,800 I think it should be done... 38 00:02:11,800 --> 00:02:13,880 ..before it's too late. 39 00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:30,440 'The British Antarctic in the mid-1920s. 40 00:02:30,440 --> 00:02:34,040 'Whale hunting had moved on from using sailing ships 41 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:35,880 'and hand-held lances 42 00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:40,600 'to steam-powered catching ships and grenade-tipped harpoons. 43 00:02:48,040 --> 00:02:52,280 'The industry was expanding thanks to a growing market for whale oil 44 00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:55,040 'as a cheap alternative to animal fat 45 00:02:55,040 --> 00:02:57,760 'for the soap and food industries. 46 00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:01,520 'Whale stocks in the northern hemisphere 47 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:05,520 'had already been decimated and a number of pioneering companies 48 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:09,760 'had turned to the last frontier of Antarctica instead. 49 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:15,040 'Some were operating from ships anchored in sheltered bays 50 00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:18,280 'around the British administered Antarctic Peninsula. 51 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:22,040 'But the world's biggest whaling centre had been established 52 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:26,360 'on the remote and uninhabited island of South Georgia - 53 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:29,280 'still a British overseas territory today. 54 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:35,520 'I've come to the largest of the six shore stations on the island.' 55 00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:38,760 So this is it - Leith Harbour, 56 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:41,040 in all its beauty... 57 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:45,920 ..and total dereliction. 58 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:51,520 'This whole site is officially off-limits 59 00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:55,080 'due to collapsing buildings and asbestos. 60 00:03:57,080 --> 00:03:59,760 'And I'm only allowed here by special permission 61 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:03,040 'and as long as I wear the appropriate protective gear. 62 00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:09,040 'Leith Harbour had been set up by the Edinburgh-based company, 63 00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:12,040 'Christian Salvesen, in 1909. 64 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:16,520 'The peak of productivity here was 1925 65 00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:22,520 'when over 16,000 tonnes of whale oil was sent back to the UK - 66 00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:26,280 'equivalent to £30 million worth today. 67 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:32,040 'So why, just 40 years later, 68 00:04:32,040 --> 00:04:36,040 'was this gold mine abandoned to the ravages of weather 69 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:38,520 'and ransacking sailors?' 70 00:04:40,040 --> 00:04:42,560 It's like it's been burgled. 71 00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:55,040 'The foundation for all this was the abundant whales 72 00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:57,480 'of the surrounding Antarctic Ocean. 73 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:02,240 'A fleet of whale-catcher ships were hunting up to 200 miles offshore 74 00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:06,000 'before towing their dead quarry back to the station. 75 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:12,640 'Up to 29 tonnes of valuable oil could be extracted from each whale 76 00:05:12,640 --> 00:05:15,120 'by putting its blubber, meat and bone 77 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:17,680 'through different industrial processes.' 78 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:23,040 The whole whale, 80-90 tonne whale, could be dealt with 79 00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:25,040 in 20 minutes. 80 00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:28,040 Arriving from the sea a complete animal, 81 00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:31,600 20 minutes later, totally dispersed. 82 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:37,520 'The whalers, initially Norwegian and increasingly joined by Scots, 83 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:41,040 'were using some serious industrial power.' 84 00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:44,520 You were pulling wires and that so you had to be very careful. 85 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:46,520 It could be a very dangerous job. 86 00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:49,560 Your attention had to be on your job all the time. 87 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:54,440 Steam winches strapped to parts of the whale and you had to make sure 88 00:05:54,440 --> 00:05:56,280 you weren't standing over these, 89 00:05:56,280 --> 00:05:59,560 otherwise you could be decapitated if you weren't careful. 90 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:04,520 And this wire just sprung clear and it hit me right on the... 91 00:06:04,520 --> 00:06:07,520 Which side was it? It was this side. 92 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:11,280 It whipped me right across the plant deck. 93 00:06:11,280 --> 00:06:13,520 Must have went about... 94 00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:15,520 25 foot. 95 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:17,680 Something like that. 96 00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:20,760 I could feel my hat going up, up, up. 97 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:24,480 And then the side of the head was just swelling, you know? 98 00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:30,040 Certainly health and safety was not invented then. 99 00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:42,480 There was knives everywhere and big, sharp ones, too. 100 00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:47,200 A cutter came who wasn't a seasoned cutter. 101 00:06:47,200 --> 00:06:49,280 He was a cowboy, really. 102 00:06:50,280 --> 00:06:53,920 And he started swinging with this flensing knife. 103 00:06:54,920 --> 00:06:57,400 The knife came out of his hand 104 00:06:57,400 --> 00:07:01,040 and went flying over my head, there. 105 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:04,520 Took the beret off my... we used to wear black berets. 106 00:07:04,520 --> 00:07:07,040 Took the beret off my head. 107 00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:11,520 I was lucky. It could have chopped my head off, that. 108 00:07:12,520 --> 00:07:15,040 That was the biggest fright I got. 109 00:07:18,400 --> 00:07:22,040 'Back in London, the Colonial Office had realised 110 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:26,280 'that the stations risked becoming too effective for their own good. 111 00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:31,040 'While it welcomed the tax revenue from its wild Antarctic possessions, 112 00:07:31,040 --> 00:07:34,520 'it feared a repeat of the overhunting in the North Atlantic. 113 00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:38,280 'It had introduced licensing and a magistrate 114 00:07:38,280 --> 00:07:40,760 'to control the scale of the stations 115 00:07:40,760 --> 00:07:43,760 'and banned the hunting of the already overexploited 116 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:45,280 'humpback whale. 117 00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:48,040 'But Leith Harbour was still processing 118 00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:51,200 'up to 1,500 whales a season. 119 00:07:55,520 --> 00:07:59,520 'With hundreds of men working in such a remote location, 120 00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:02,800 'the company effectively built a small town 121 00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:06,760 'to provide everything from housing to medical care.' 122 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:09,040 This must be the hospital. 123 00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:13,760 This looks like a ward. 124 00:08:13,760 --> 00:08:18,040 I do have a picture here of a patient in this hospital. 125 00:08:18,040 --> 00:08:21,120 He does not look well, the poor man. 126 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:29,040 A-ha! 127 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:31,480 Look in here, look in here. 128 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:36,040 This...is the pharmacy. 129 00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:40,280 The pharmacy from hell. 130 00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:47,040 Medicines everywhere. Medicines in utter chaos. 131 00:08:47,040 --> 00:08:50,760 There are tablets just scattered over these benches. 132 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:54,520 What have we got? Poultice of kaolin. 133 00:08:54,520 --> 00:08:58,280 I think you put that on a wound so it dries up a wound. 134 00:08:58,280 --> 00:08:59,920 Suppurating wound. 135 00:08:59,920 --> 00:09:02,520 Adrenalin for adrenalin shots. 136 00:09:02,520 --> 00:09:05,040 What about this stuff here? 137 00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:08,040 Dry human plasma. 138 00:09:08,040 --> 00:09:11,760 Of course, a hospital had to be equipped for every conceivable 139 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:13,960 ailment and illness. 140 00:09:14,960 --> 00:09:18,280 'One of the doctors that worked here regularly through the 1950s 141 00:09:18,280 --> 00:09:21,040 'was Dr Macintosh from the Outer Hebrides. 142 00:09:22,040 --> 00:09:26,040 'One of his duties in Scotland was to examine every recruit 143 00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:28,040 'before they sailed south.' 144 00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:34,040 What he would say to you was, how much blood is in your alcohol? 145 00:09:34,040 --> 00:09:36,520 He was really quite an amusing fella. 146 00:09:36,520 --> 00:09:40,760 He'd just take a look at you and he knew I was perfectly healthy. 147 00:09:40,760 --> 00:09:43,000 "Fine. Off you go." 148 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:46,760 Dr Macintosh kept a diary of his life here 149 00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:50,040 and he's very matter of fact about the stream of things 150 00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:53,520 that come to him in the surgery in this hospital. 151 00:09:53,520 --> 00:09:55,760 "Sunday, December 2nd. 152 00:09:55,760 --> 00:09:59,520 "Had quite a busy day with two particularly nasty cases 153 00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:02,040 "of metal splinters in eyes 154 00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:05,040 "which were not nice things to deal with. 155 00:10:05,040 --> 00:10:08,400 "However, with the help of lots of local anaesthesia 156 00:10:08,400 --> 00:10:11,760 "and patience, everything came out all right." 157 00:10:11,760 --> 00:10:16,040 He was clearly a phlegmatic and capable man. 158 00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:20,280 "Quite a number of minor accidents during the day, 159 00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:25,280 "including one gent who stupidly grabbed hold of a steam pipe 160 00:10:25,280 --> 00:10:28,040 "to the detriment of his hand." 161 00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:38,200 'As the whaling boom of the 1920s continued to build, 162 00:10:38,200 --> 00:10:42,200 'the head of London's Natural History Museum, Sir Sidney Harmer, 163 00:10:42,200 --> 00:10:45,360 'strongly suspected that licensing was failing 164 00:10:45,360 --> 00:10:47,720 'to ensure a sustainable industry. 165 00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:54,440 'He realised that the only way to rein in such profitable operations 166 00:10:54,440 --> 00:10:58,040 'was to present the whalers with solid facts. 167 00:10:58,040 --> 00:11:00,360 'But as very little was known about whales, 168 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:03,520 'Harmer pressed for a scientific investigation, 169 00:11:03,520 --> 00:11:06,960 'funded by an increased tax on whale oil production. 170 00:11:10,440 --> 00:11:12,560 'A legacy of this visionary programme 171 00:11:12,560 --> 00:11:15,320 'still exists in Britain today.' 172 00:11:15,320 --> 00:11:19,320 I'm here at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, 173 00:11:19,320 --> 00:11:24,120 to see their brand-new research ship, the Discovery. 174 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:28,560 'A new committee headed by Harmer bought Captain Scott's old ship, 175 00:11:28,560 --> 00:11:30,240 'the original Discovery, 176 00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:35,480 'for the first research voyage to the Antarctic in 1925. 177 00:11:35,480 --> 00:11:38,360 'With the whale oil tax flooding in, 178 00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:41,120 'they were soon able to build a more modern successor.' 179 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:44,960 To undertake research into the diet, habits and the migrations 180 00:11:44,960 --> 00:11:49,200 of the whale, the Discovery Committee dispatched the royal research ship, 181 00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:52,600 Discovery II into the Antarctic. 182 00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:55,560 - NEWSREEL: - The royal research ship Discovery II is leaving 183 00:11:55,560 --> 00:11:59,400 St Katharine's Dock, London, on her fourth expedition to the Antarctic. 184 00:11:59,400 --> 00:12:00,560 For the next six months, 185 00:12:00,560 --> 00:12:02,800 they'll have continuous daylight and sunshine. 186 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:04,120 Lucky dogs. 187 00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:10,800 Hello, I'm Adam. Nice to meet you. 188 00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:13,360 'Professor Howard Roe is a former director 189 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:15,560 'of the National Oceanography Centre.' 190 00:12:15,560 --> 00:12:18,880 - Will you show me? - I'll show you some of what's going on. 191 00:12:18,880 --> 00:12:22,560 'His career began doing biology at a whaling station.' 192 00:12:24,600 --> 00:12:28,280 Here, there are cranes either side of the A-frame 193 00:12:28,280 --> 00:12:30,480 for handling equipment down here. 194 00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:34,240 There are bigger ones there with a heavy reach. 195 00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:37,840 'The Discovery Investigations were hugely ambitious - 196 00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:41,520 'ahead of their time in studying the whole Antarctic ecosystem, 197 00:12:41,520 --> 00:12:45,200 'and revolutionary in being funded by industry.' 198 00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:48,160 This is the winch system, the heart of the ship. 199 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:53,640 For instance, over there you have 15,000 metres of tapered warp 200 00:12:53,640 --> 00:12:55,240 for trawling nets. 201 00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:59,000 - The scale of it. 10 miles! - Yes. 202 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:03,320 'Scientists deployed new devices and techniques to probe everything 203 00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:06,920 'from microscopic plankton to the whales themselves.' 204 00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:11,200 Here on the bridge gate is the direct link 205 00:13:11,200 --> 00:13:16,440 - with the Discovery Investigations and the current ship. - Look at that. 206 00:13:16,440 --> 00:13:21,080 That is the badge of the Discovery Investigations from the 1920s. 207 00:13:21,080 --> 00:13:23,840 - This is some bridge, isn't it? - Absolutely. 208 00:13:23,840 --> 00:13:25,920 I mean, this feels like a nightclub. 209 00:13:27,360 --> 00:13:32,360 'A few fundamental questions form the basis of the Investigations.' 210 00:13:32,360 --> 00:13:34,840 How old were the whales? What did they feed on? 211 00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:36,320 How often did they breed? 212 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:39,640 Where did they migrate to? They knew they didn't stay there all the time. 213 00:13:39,640 --> 00:13:41,400 How long did it take them? 214 00:13:41,400 --> 00:13:46,160 In order to be able to get some feel for the size of the whale population, 215 00:13:46,160 --> 00:13:50,920 and the effect that harvesting this would have on it. 216 00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:54,800 The endgame was always to prolong the industry as a 217 00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:57,720 commercially-viable organisation, 218 00:13:57,720 --> 00:13:59,840 because of the tax revenues they got. 219 00:14:01,360 --> 00:14:02,920 'Alongside the ship-based work, 220 00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:06,600 'a South Georgia base was established, Discovery House.' 221 00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:11,400 'Biologists spent the whaling season taking samples 222 00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:13,960 'from the carcasses brought in by the whalers.' 223 00:14:15,240 --> 00:14:18,800 We weighed the testes of male whales, 224 00:14:18,800 --> 00:14:22,600 we weighed the ovaries of female whales, 225 00:14:22,600 --> 00:14:24,960 we took counts of the corpus luteum 226 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:30,800 on the ovaries that indicated how many calves the whale had had. 227 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:32,600 'The Discovery Investigations 228 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:35,760 'also attempted the first whale tracking system.' 229 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:40,520 To start with, they had developed a whale mark like this. 230 00:14:40,520 --> 00:14:45,000 You can see it has "Reward for return to the Discovery Committee." 231 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:47,960 And they each had a unique number, 4219, 232 00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:50,920 and the whole thing was fired from a 12 bore shotgun. 233 00:14:50,920 --> 00:14:53,160 You fire them in and it sat there 234 00:14:53,160 --> 00:14:56,000 so that the surface was on the surface of the whale. 235 00:14:56,000 --> 00:15:00,000 The position where the ship was was noted. 236 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:03,960 The whale hopefully is caught, sometime afterwards, 237 00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:05,800 at a different position. 238 00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:08,960 And when it is processed, the whale mark is recovered. 239 00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:11,520 It doesn't look like it's got much a of a grip. 240 00:15:11,520 --> 00:15:13,480 - Well, that was the problem. - Oh, right. 241 00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:16,800 Cos these are tiny, these little barbs, aren't they? 242 00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:19,800 Hundreds of these were fired into whales, 243 00:15:19,800 --> 00:15:22,200 - not one was ever recovered. - Really? 244 00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:25,720 And it was discovered that live whales are very capable 245 00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:30,720 of shedding nasty parasites and things that stick onto the outside, 246 00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:34,880 and in 1932 a new whale mark was designed. 247 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:39,520 It's a long steel tube with a number on it 248 00:15:39,520 --> 00:15:41,560 and the information about the reward. 249 00:15:41,560 --> 00:15:44,680 The position where it was marked was known, 250 00:15:44,680 --> 00:15:48,240 the position where the whale was caught subsequently was known. 251 00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:51,200 And you would know for a certainty that the whale must have moved 252 00:15:51,200 --> 00:15:53,480 from point A to point B. 253 00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:57,720 So the whole migratory pattern of the whales was found. 254 00:15:57,720 --> 00:16:01,680 - The different species of whales was found by doing this. - Yes. 255 00:16:01,680 --> 00:16:08,960 Mark number 1484, this was the oldest ever recovery. 256 00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:12,160 This whale mark had spent 28 years in a whale. 257 00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:15,080 It went right the way through the process, 258 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:18,400 and it finally turned up in one of the meat meal boilers. 259 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:21,720 The man from the meat meal boiler came running out with it 260 00:16:21,720 --> 00:16:25,800 and was very pleased to show me it, because he got a reward for it. 261 00:16:25,800 --> 00:16:30,680 This was the first proof that anybody had, real proof, 262 00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:32,960 that whales could live so long. 263 00:16:32,960 --> 00:16:38,040 So there's no way you can know about the life of a whale, 264 00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:40,560 - unless you kill it. - Yes. 265 00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:43,920 And the next step on that - 266 00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:46,200 to save whales, you have to kill them. 267 00:16:47,440 --> 00:16:51,960 Well...in a sense, yes. The... 268 00:16:53,080 --> 00:16:57,240 ..science of the large whales depended upon the whaling industry. 269 00:16:57,240 --> 00:17:00,600 These are not animals which you can get to grips with 270 00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:02,800 unless unfortunately they're dead. 271 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:08,680 If you can imagine walking alongside an animal 70, 80 feet long, 272 00:17:08,680 --> 00:17:11,000 trying to sample it, this is not easy. 273 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:13,600 These animals would already have been killed. 274 00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:17,880 They were there, so it was up to us to make the best use of them 275 00:17:17,880 --> 00:17:19,080 as we could. 276 00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:25,800 'The whaling companies didn't like the increased tax 277 00:17:25,800 --> 00:17:28,160 'to fund the Discovery Investigations. 278 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:34,040 'But they had little choice, South Georgia was British. 279 00:17:34,040 --> 00:17:37,120 'And even further south, the factory ships, 280 00:17:37,120 --> 00:17:40,920 'where they butchered the whales alongside needed the sheltered bays 281 00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:45,280 'of the Antarctic Peninsula, which was also British. 282 00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:48,440 'And so they too had to pay the tax.' 283 00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:54,920 The Norwegians had an answer to this problem 284 00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:57,320 which was to take one of these whaling stations 285 00:17:57,320 --> 00:17:59,080 and to put it on board a ship. 286 00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:02,520 The way to do that was to make a stern slipway, 287 00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:05,840 just like the slipway coming onto the plan here. 288 00:18:05,840 --> 00:18:08,960 And then to use the deck of the ship as the plan. 289 00:18:10,120 --> 00:18:12,280 Then take the big processing plants, 290 00:18:12,280 --> 00:18:15,320 the blubber plant, the meat plant and the bone plant, 291 00:18:15,320 --> 00:18:18,400 and put them down below under the deck, 292 00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:22,760 so that the ship became a completely self-contained processing unit 293 00:18:22,760 --> 00:18:25,480 which could go wherever the whales were. 294 00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:38,640 The same machinery is crammed into a 16,000 tonne ship. 295 00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:43,400 No room whatsoever to do anything. 296 00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:48,120 You're crawling between pipes, up ladders. 297 00:18:48,120 --> 00:18:55,000 It was hot as hell. You were always looking for water. Water to drink. 298 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:57,680 It's incredible what went on in these ships. 299 00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:03,040 'The stern slipway was a revolutionary leap for the industry. 300 00:19:04,120 --> 00:19:08,280 'By being able to process whales at sea, the new factory ships could 301 00:19:08,280 --> 00:19:12,360 'follow their fleet of catches to wherever the hunting was best. 302 00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:16,880 'This was called pelagic whaling, 303 00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:20,000 'and also allowed the industry to escape regulation. 304 00:19:21,840 --> 00:19:24,760 'The British only controlled the seas up to three miles 305 00:19:24,760 --> 00:19:26,880 'off their territories, 306 00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:31,000 'beyond which the entire Antarctic Ocean was fair game. 307 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:34,440 'The seeds were sown for the industry's self-destruction. 308 00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:40,120 'As well as the station at Leith Harbour, 309 00:19:40,120 --> 00:19:43,120 Salvesen's had two old-fashioned factory ships 310 00:19:43,120 --> 00:19:46,120 'operating in the Antarctic bays further south.' 311 00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:53,080 Very nice office. Nicest room in the whole place. 312 00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:56,240 'Then a young manager visited Leith Harbour, Harold Salvesen, 313 00:19:56,240 --> 00:20:00,760 'the first of the family ever to make it down south.' 314 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:03,600 He had been a lecturer in economics at Oxford 315 00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:05,440 and had got fed up with that. 316 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:08,160 The family were trying to persuade him to join the firm, 317 00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:10,720 so we came down here to see what was going on. 318 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:13,360 He began to apply all of those 319 00:20:13,360 --> 00:20:18,480 new, rational, systematic, technocratic ways 320 00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:21,000 of looking at how to run a business. 321 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:23,480 And he wrote some marvellous letters home. 322 00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:29,200 "It looks, for the present, as if a normal or even poor year 323 00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:31,960 "in the ice could pay handsomely." 324 00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:33,640 Later on, he wrote, 325 00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:36,960 "The fishing won't of course last for a long time. 326 00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:39,920 "The more new factories and especially whale catchers 327 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:43,160 "are sent down, the shorter will it last. 328 00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:47,600 "But possibilities and probabilities are so colossal at present 329 00:20:47,600 --> 00:20:53,000 "that I cannot conceive of a well-managed, well-equipped factory 330 00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:56,040 "failing to pay handsomely if sent down the next season, 331 00:20:56,040 --> 00:20:58,400 "or even for the following." 332 00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:04,120 He wanted Salvesen's to bank on these pelagic whalers. 333 00:21:04,120 --> 00:21:08,280 He wanted to make money just as the Norwegians were. 334 00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:13,800 'The first thing that Harold did on his return to Britain in 1929 335 00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:17,800 'was to buy two liners to convert into factory ships 336 00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:19,640 'with stern slipways. 337 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:24,040 'He also ordered 13 powerful new catcher ships. 338 00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:28,600 'This modernisation of the fleet cost nearly £700,000. 339 00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:31,360 'Over 100 million at today's costs. 340 00:21:34,440 --> 00:21:38,440 'Harold also knew that demand in Europe was rapidly increasing. 341 00:21:38,440 --> 00:21:43,040 'The process of turning whale oil into a more valuable solid fat, 342 00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:47,120 'hydrogenation, had just been improved to produce 343 00:21:47,120 --> 00:21:50,160 'a spreadable fat without any taste of whale. 344 00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:53,800 'This allowed more of it to be used in foods 345 00:21:53,800 --> 00:22:00,880 'and by 1933, 37% of the fat in British margarines was from whales. 346 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:08,640 'I visited Norway to find out the impact that this new ship technology 347 00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:11,560 'and expanding market had on whale catches. 348 00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:16,920 'The Sandefjord Whaling Museum houses the records 349 00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:20,160 'that a Norwegian whaling bureau collated annually.' 350 00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:24,520 So these are the international whaling statistics 351 00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:28,000 in the years before the Second World War. 352 00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:30,760 And they're putting in the numbers of whales 353 00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:33,560 that they're catching every day. 354 00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:38,200 Giant animals - 84 feet long, 77 feet long, 355 00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:44,480 one of them pregnant, it says here it had a nine-foot foetus in it. 356 00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:47,240 The very interesting thing about it is that before 357 00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:50,520 those big, technological changes of the mid-1920s, 358 00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:52,680 very few whales are being killed. 359 00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:58,600 This is the total width for 1920 to 1922, a slim volume. 360 00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:03,080 But then, after factory ships were introduced in the late '20s, 361 00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:05,120 things start to expand. 362 00:23:05,120 --> 00:23:10,320 By 1930 to 1931, you are up to this. 363 00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:14,000 This is a measure of the vast number of whales 364 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:16,000 that were being killed. 365 00:23:17,400 --> 00:23:20,160 'Meanwhile, the Discovery Investigations were 366 00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:23,120 'starting to learn some important facts. 367 00:23:23,120 --> 00:23:25,840 'The greatest concentration of the whales' food, 368 00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:30,720 'the tiny crustacean krill, was to be found at the Antarctic ice edge. 369 00:23:32,040 --> 00:23:33,840 'By the 1931 season, 370 00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:38,560 'three quarters of Antarctica was surrounded by factory ships 371 00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:39,880 'and their catches. 372 00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:42,960 'All unhampered by any regulation. 373 00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:48,600 'But when the season's record haul of whale oil 374 00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:50,560 'caused the market to crash, 375 00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:54,640 'the industry realised that some control was necessary. 376 00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:57,920 'The two major whaling nations, Norway and Britain, 377 00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:02,240 'agreed to restrict themselves to 2/3 of that bumper year - 378 00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:05,120 'around 28,000 whales a season. 379 00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:10,840 'Even with the catch limits, 380 00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:13,280 'Salvesen's investment in their modern ships 381 00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:14,760 'was paying off handsomely. 382 00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:18,080 'Over the decade of the 1930s, 383 00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:21,560 they posted a profit of £1.1 million, 384 00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:24,600 'equivalent to 365 million today. 385 00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:35,080 'Leith Harbour remained an active whaling station during summer. 386 00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:37,720 'And over winter, it became the service centre 387 00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:41,440 'for Salvesen's fleets of whale catchers returning from the ice.' 388 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:46,200 When the season ended, 389 00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:47,880 there was a possibility of you 390 00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:50,640 staying in South Georgia over the winter. 391 00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:53,000 That was when all the whale catcher repairs were done 392 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:55,080 and they were all made ready for next season. 393 00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:58,280 The engineers and everybody would make a list of things 394 00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:02,960 that were needing done, the boat was all to be painted, inside, outside. 395 00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:06,360 They've got everything in there that was required for working - 396 00:25:06,360 --> 00:25:11,760 they could build a ship. I was put on the deck gang. 397 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:13,920 So that's everything from the top of the masts 398 00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:16,840 right down to the water line! That's what we did. 399 00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:24,640 It was very well paid and we were well fed. I do know that. 400 00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:27,080 It was quite an attractive proposition. 401 00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:30,520 Being out in the country over a year, you got all your tax back, 402 00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:34,160 so you came home with a fairly hefty pay packet. 403 00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:37,880 My payoff was £1,100 for 18 months. 404 00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:40,680 So that was a lot of money at that time. 405 00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:43,720 You bought a house for £600 or £700. 406 00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:48,720 Maybe get a new fishing boat built, go into some sort of business. 407 00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:51,680 Quite a few businesses in Shetland today 408 00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:54,640 that were started on money earned at the whaling. 409 00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:01,600 'Without whales to be flensed, 410 00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:06,040 'the whalers that overwintered had more time to enjoy the island.' 411 00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:09,440 The big events were the skiing events. 412 00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:13,800 You had other stations coming in and joining in. 413 00:26:13,800 --> 00:26:17,720 I thought, "I think I'll get into the ski jumping." 414 00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:19,800 I liked watching this. 415 00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:23,800 Danny Morrison was a good skier. He made more of it than me. 416 00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:28,120 I've got a photo here... 417 00:26:30,120 --> 00:26:32,120 ..of the ski jump here at Leith Harbour 418 00:26:32,120 --> 00:26:35,120 and I think if you come just about over here... 419 00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:40,000 ..I think we must be pretty well at the bottom of the jump here, 420 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:43,640 because here is a picture of a man in full flight. 421 00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:47,640 So I think the jump itself must be just up there. 422 00:26:52,120 --> 00:26:58,280 There is something collapsed here, into this little valley. 423 00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:07,840 I wonder. I wonder. Ah, I think this is it. 424 00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:12,440 I think that that is the deck of the jump itself. 425 00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:17,120 Which of course is snowed up in the winter, and maybe even... 426 00:27:17,120 --> 00:27:22,800 There is the kind of starting gate, there, that top framework. 427 00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:25,000 So, yeah, I think this is it. 428 00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:28,720 This is actually the Leith Harbour ski jump. 429 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:30,280 How exciting is that? 430 00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:37,760 The jump starts near the top until the bugle blows. 431 00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:42,760 And they set off down here, roaring downhill, as fast as they could... 432 00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:46,600 You're heading down at one hell of a rate. 433 00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:49,720 And you are all off-balance, you're trying to get your balance. 434 00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:51,680 HE LAUGHS 435 00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:54,080 Before you know it, you are on take off. 436 00:27:56,440 --> 00:27:58,840 You must get past the big flat part 437 00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:03,040 or it will be like falling off a two-storey building. 438 00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:05,360 This is where you land. 439 00:28:05,360 --> 00:28:07,640 Or the bit of slope you hope to get to. 440 00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:13,160 As long as you got onto the downhill, when you fell, you just rolled. 441 00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:17,760 Which is what happens. But my next jump was much better. 442 00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:20,360 It was pretty good. It was pretty good. Danny was pretty good. 443 00:28:20,360 --> 00:28:23,800 I think Danny was related to a penguin. 444 00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:32,760 'But life on a remote Antarctic island wasn't for everyone.' 445 00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:40,520 It's a long time, 18 months. A long time to be away from home. 446 00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:43,600 Sometimes you got a wee bit fed up at night, 447 00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:46,400 you wanted to wish you were back home again. 448 00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:48,680 Life was what you made it. 449 00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:52,520 It could be good or bad, it all depends on your mental attitude. 450 00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:55,400 Dr Macintosh talks about whale sickness, 451 00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:58,040 which seems to have afflicted a lot of people - 452 00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:00,680 a combination of frustration and boredom 453 00:29:00,680 --> 00:29:04,160 when no whales were coming into the station. 454 00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:08,200 But, for some people, depression could be a lot worse than that. 455 00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:17,040 'Each of the whaling stations on the island had its own cemetery. 456 00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:21,840 'Whalers who died were laid to rest a very long way from home.' 457 00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:31,520 They are all so young. 25, 37. 458 00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:33,800 29. 459 00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:37,720 There's a friend of mine down there. He found that... At the latter end, 460 00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,920 he just lost the plot. 461 00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:43,560 'A boy called Tony Ford.' 462 00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:45,120 He came from Edinburgh. 463 00:29:46,720 --> 00:29:50,120 Here's Tony Ford. 464 00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:54,680 "Deck galley boy." 19 years old. 465 00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:58,040 I've got a record here of his death. 466 00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:01,400 "April, 1952, Anthony Ford. 467 00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:06,840 "Mess boy. British. Cause of death, strangulation. 468 00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:13,560 "Coroner's inquest, suicide. Whilst balanced of mind, disturbed." 469 00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:17,320 That's a tragic story, isn't it? 470 00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:21,560 A pitiable end, poor man, poor boy. 471 00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:38,160 'By the mid 1930s, 472 00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:41,840 'whale oil had become an essential part of Europe's food supply.' 473 00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:50,680 Look at this. 474 00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:53,320 Look what the wind can do here, 475 00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:56,800 folding in the whole side of the tank like that. 476 00:30:56,800 --> 00:31:00,520 When it was working, this tank, like the others, 477 00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:02,600 filled to the brim with whale oil. 478 00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:07,920 Imagine the number of whales needed to fill this. 479 00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:12,440 And nearly all of that oil going back to Europe to make margarine. 480 00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:20,000 'As the Second World War approached, 481 00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:25,200 'several nations realised they needed to secure their own supply 482 00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:26,800 'of this vital fat. 483 00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:30,160 'Seven new factory ships were commissioned by Germany 484 00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:31,600 'and four by Japan.' 485 00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:38,200 'Britain and Norway had lost control of the industry. 486 00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:39,920 'By the eve of war, 487 00:31:39,920 --> 00:31:44,960 'Antarctic catches reached 46,000 whales in a season. 488 00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:49,280 'Blowing apart their attempt at regulation a few years earlier.' 489 00:31:52,520 --> 00:31:57,840 This is the gun that the whalers were given by the Government 490 00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:02,920 to defend South Georgia during the Second World War. 491 00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:06,960 But it was a hopeless old thing. 492 00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:11,720 Here, amazingly, is a shell. 493 00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:15,240 That went in there, I guess. 494 00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:19,400 Don't know, I've never done this before. 495 00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:22,000 And off it went. 496 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:26,040 Really nothing happened in South Georgia during the war. 497 00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:29,480 All the whaling ships were taken away from here. 498 00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:33,040 The factory ships to work on convoy duty, 499 00:32:33,040 --> 00:32:35,360 bringing supplies across the Atlantic, 500 00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:36,800 cos the Government thought 501 00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:39,280 that was more important than getting whale oil. 502 00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:42,640 And the catchers to work as minesweepers. 503 00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:47,320 So the people who were left here were really left with nothing to do. 504 00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:51,200 And the idea that they could have popped off at some German cruiser 505 00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:54,920 coming here with this old thing was of course laughable. 506 00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:07,400 I've got a list here of the Salvesen ships 507 00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:10,360 and what happened to them in the course of the war. 508 00:33:10,360 --> 00:33:14,640 It is a very sobering document. 509 00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:17,840 "Glen Farg, torpedo, lost. 510 00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:21,080 "Brandon, torpedo, sunk. 511 00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:25,800 "Albuera, torpedo, sunk." One after another. 512 00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:31,120 And a huge loss of life - "nine men killed," "all hands drowned," 513 00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:33,320 "presumed all lost." 514 00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:35,640 On and on and on. 515 00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:39,920 In fact, every single British factory ship 516 00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:41,800 was lost in the course of the war. 517 00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:48,040 As the war approached its conclusion, 518 00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:51,720 Britain was desperately short of food, including fats. 519 00:33:51,720 --> 00:33:54,040 We were absolutely on our... knackered. 520 00:33:55,360 --> 00:33:57,200 'The hull of an aircraft carrier 521 00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:00,960 'was given a new use halfway through being built.' 522 00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:03,800 It became obvious to the Government that aircraft carriers 523 00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:05,680 were not nearly as important 524 00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:08,680 as something to get some bloody food into Europe. 525 00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:11,200 The importance of a whaling factory ship 526 00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:13,960 overtook that of an aircraft carrier. 527 00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:18,280 Therefore, Balaena was converted into a whaling factory ship. 528 00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:20,360 - NEWSREEL: - So urgently was a catch needed 529 00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:23,000 that the finishing touches to the factory machinery 530 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:24,680 were added after she sailed. 531 00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:31,160 'The Balaena belonged to the British firm, Hector Whaling. 532 00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:33,920 'Whilst Salvesen's launched two purpose-built factory ships 533 00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:35,320 'of their own.' 534 00:34:41,240 --> 00:34:44,040 'Scientists and some whaling bosses realised that, 535 00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:47,000 'if the industry wanted a long future, 536 00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:50,520 'there couldn't be a return to the 1930s free-for-all. 537 00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:56,560 'In 1946, the International Whaling Commission, or IWC, 538 00:34:56,560 --> 00:35:01,840 'was established to bring together industry leaders and scientists, 539 00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:05,320 'including the Discovery Investigations biologists 540 00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:08,360 'based at London's Natural History Museum.' 541 00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:18,600 Delegates to the IWC negotiated a quota for the number of whales 542 00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:20,560 that could be caught each year. 543 00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:24,280 The figure they set was two thirds of the catch before the war. 544 00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:28,680 That was 16,000 blue whale units a year, 545 00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:32,440 which meant they could catch 16,000 blue whales 546 00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:35,400 or their equivalent in smaller whales. 547 00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:42,480 'One blue was considered equal to two fin whales 548 00:35:42,480 --> 00:35:44,360 'or six sei whales. 549 00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:50,560 'Many IWC scientists realised that this quota 550 00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:52,920 'was too high to be sustainable. 551 00:35:54,240 --> 00:35:58,920 'But unable to justify anything lower to a Europe desperate for fat, 552 00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:02,320 'they reckoned it was better than no quota at all.' 553 00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:07,160 Feels very James Bond in here. 554 00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:09,440 THEY CHUCKLE 555 00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:12,000 'I'm being allowed a sneak view behind-the-scenes 556 00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:16,160 'with collections manager Miranda Lowe.' 557 00:36:16,160 --> 00:36:18,640 Fantastic. What are they? 558 00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:20,400 Well, what you can see here, 559 00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:23,040 in the jars, are a lot of the oversized fish 560 00:36:23,040 --> 00:36:25,920 collected on various scientific expeditions. 561 00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:29,800 They are really mysterious. I mean, how old these things? 562 00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:32,600 Some of them are over 200 years old. 563 00:36:32,600 --> 00:36:37,120 Some of the specimens were collected by Charles Darwin. 564 00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:41,080 'This building also stores a large proportion of the specimens 565 00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:43,120 'from the Discovery Investigations, 566 00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:47,000 'established in the 1920s to find out more about whales.' 567 00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:51,880 We're in the Crustacea collection, so we're passing through the miacids, 568 00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:54,120 - the amphipods... - The amphipods. 569 00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:59,520 ..isopods and we're going to eventually get to euphausiids. 570 00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:03,560 - Ah, these are the krill, then. - These are the krill, exactly. 571 00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:08,440 And we have cupboards full of the Discovery Investigation krill. 572 00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:12,760 Look at that, it's jar after jar after jar. 573 00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:16,440 Every single one of them, hauled up. 574 00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:18,120 More cupboards here. 575 00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:21,760 We have more cupboards here. And it keeps going on. 576 00:37:21,760 --> 00:37:24,880 If you think of the months 577 00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:29,840 and years of people's lives that are poured into these jars. 578 00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:35,200 A massive investment, but it provides scientists with a huge amount 579 00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:40,520 of baseline data that they can use to compare to more recent research. 580 00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:46,800 The scale of sampling was vast. 581 00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:50,200 You might have thought that the data from it should have provided 582 00:37:50,200 --> 00:37:53,960 the scientific basis for sustainable whaling. 583 00:37:53,960 --> 00:37:56,800 But the industry didn't want any reduction in quota, 584 00:37:56,800 --> 00:37:59,120 and they soon found a way of sidelining 585 00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:03,000 the scientists by claiming that not enough biology 586 00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:07,640 had yet been done to prove that a reduction in quota was necessary. 587 00:38:07,640 --> 00:38:11,680 So they sent the scientists off to do yet more biology. 588 00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:15,920 'A lot of emphasis was placed on getting more data.' 589 00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:20,040 But it's not data that's involved, it's methodology. 590 00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:22,880 It's to know what to do with the data! 591 00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:28,440 'While the biologists were kept busy collecting, 592 00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:30,800 'the industry could continue to 593 00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:33,920 'chase the large, globally-applied quota.' 594 00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:35,800 Oh, my God! Look at that. 595 00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:39,480 Look at that! 596 00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:43,320 Fantastic. Wow! 597 00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:48,840 'The catcher ships found that they were in a race, 598 00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:50,880 'as every company tried to bag 599 00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:53,840 'as much of the allowed total for themselves.' 600 00:38:53,840 --> 00:38:56,240 Sometimes, a couple of boats would sight whales, 601 00:38:56,240 --> 00:38:59,120 and it was a race to get to them, to be the first there. 602 00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:03,920 It's obviously something built for drive and power, 603 00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:06,400 it's got a whopping great prop on the back there. 604 00:39:08,440 --> 00:39:11,920 If there was another catcher, you were shouting down to the engine, 605 00:39:11,920 --> 00:39:13,600 "We need a bit more speed! 606 00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:16,000 "Someone is racing us here!" 607 00:39:18,360 --> 00:39:22,040 You didn't want to put up a smoke signal, 608 00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:24,360 because other catchers in the distance... 609 00:39:24,360 --> 00:39:27,920 Of course, a puff of smoke told them you've increased speed. 610 00:39:33,560 --> 00:39:38,440 Something like 14 factory ships down at the ice at the same time. 611 00:39:38,440 --> 00:39:42,160 Each of them having 14 to 15 whale catchers, 612 00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:46,200 so you begin to get an idea of the size of the competition. 613 00:39:50,720 --> 00:39:53,920 That's the galley, there's the cooking range. 614 00:39:55,240 --> 00:39:58,840 There was radio connection between the factory ship and catchers 615 00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:03,440 because obviously they would need to inform on what whales had been shot. 616 00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:05,080 It was all in code, 617 00:40:05,080 --> 00:40:09,760 so that the other people couldn't listen in to where you were fishing. 618 00:40:09,760 --> 00:40:12,800 If there was a lot of whales in one particular area, 619 00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:15,120 certainly the last thing you wanted to do 620 00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:17,000 was to advertise that to competition. 621 00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:25,800 'The race meant that companies invested 622 00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:28,360 'in ever more catching equipment. 623 00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:33,280 'And the whole quota could be caught in as few as 60 days.' 624 00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:40,440 'With so much money being pumped into the industry, 625 00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:45,600 'no-one wanted to reduce quotas to more sustainable levels. 626 00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:52,720 'Meanwhile, Salvesen's average profits for the early 1950s 627 00:40:52,720 --> 00:40:55,720 was running at around a million pounds a year, 628 00:40:55,720 --> 00:40:58,160 'equivalent to 73 million today. 629 00:41:01,480 --> 00:41:03,880 'Leith Harbour continued to be the nerve centre 630 00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:06,520 'of their whole Antarctic operation. 631 00:41:06,520 --> 00:41:10,160 'And some of the money went to improving life for the whalers.' 632 00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:14,360 Ah, look at this. 633 00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:20,080 It's the film archive! 634 00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:25,640 There's a reel, and miles and miles of dumped film. 635 00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:29,560 Every image...just gone. 636 00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:34,320 Oh, wow, there it is, there's the projector. 637 00:41:35,920 --> 00:41:38,240 How amazing! 638 00:41:38,240 --> 00:41:40,280 The film case there. 639 00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:46,320 And just imagine that noise, that wonderful cinema noise it made. 640 00:41:46,320 --> 00:41:50,320 They would show pictures maybe three times a week. 641 00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:52,120 But after the first three months 642 00:41:52,120 --> 00:41:54,840 then you were starting to see them all over again. 643 00:41:54,840 --> 00:41:57,200 What the hell was it? 644 00:41:57,200 --> 00:42:00,280 The Quiet Man? The Quiet American, was it? 645 00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:02,680 John Wayne. 646 00:42:02,680 --> 00:42:06,880 And I thought it was terrific. I saw it 16 times down there. 647 00:42:08,720 --> 00:42:14,600 So, this is the cinema. There's the projector room at the back there. 648 00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:18,560 So, that was quite the highlight, you know, the films, three nights a week. 649 00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:20,000 Here we go. 650 00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:22,800 "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. 651 00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:26,960 "The Prisoner Of Zenda" with Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr. 652 00:42:26,960 --> 00:42:30,880 "The Last Time I Saw Paris" with Elizabeth Taylor. 653 00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:36,800 I mean, you can just imagine them all gazing longingly 654 00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:39,200 into Elizabeth Taylor's eyes. 655 00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:41,080 Or cleavage. 656 00:42:41,080 --> 00:42:44,200 Huge, huge up there. 657 00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:47,240 FILM PROJECTOR WHIRS 658 00:43:01,080 --> 00:43:02,840 Oh, look, there's... 659 00:43:02,840 --> 00:43:06,720 There's film with what looks like images on here. 660 00:43:06,720 --> 00:43:10,280 Let's see if I can...haul that out. 661 00:43:10,280 --> 00:43:12,400 Look, it's been preserved. 662 00:43:15,320 --> 00:43:18,240 Hundreds and hundreds of feet... 663 00:43:19,960 --> 00:43:24,240 ..just streaming out of the mound of powder. 664 00:43:24,240 --> 00:43:28,000 What have I got here? Ah! Australia... 665 00:43:29,160 --> 00:43:31,520 ..hails the Queen. 666 00:43:31,520 --> 00:43:36,040 That's what's going on - it's the Queen arriving in Sydney. 667 00:43:36,040 --> 00:43:40,040 On the Britannia with the Duke at her side. 668 00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:47,480 PRESENTER: The royal yacht Britannia took the Duke way down south 669 00:43:47,480 --> 00:43:50,800 into Antarctica to see for himself what this ice-bound region, 670 00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:53,720 inhabited by seals and penguins, was like. 671 00:43:53,720 --> 00:43:56,520 'On his world tour, after leaving Australia, 672 00:43:56,520 --> 00:43:59,640 'the Duke of Edinburgh was happy to be seen visiting the region's 673 00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:02,840 'great contribution to the British economy.' 674 00:44:02,840 --> 00:44:05,480 PRESENTER: Whaling is the chief industry in these parts, 675 00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:08,640 and this is how he was transferred to the whale-catching vessel. 676 00:44:10,120 --> 00:44:13,440 The Duke, who'd grown a trim beard, went to inspect the ship 677 00:44:13,440 --> 00:44:16,440 and talk to her company about their jobs. 678 00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:20,600 I dropped an orange box over the side and offered him 679 00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:25,560 a chance to see if he could hit it with the harpoon gun. 680 00:44:25,560 --> 00:44:28,720 I can't recall if he hit it or not. 681 00:44:28,720 --> 00:44:32,120 PRESENTER: He also landed at the whaling station itself. 682 00:44:34,560 --> 00:44:37,600 of course, it sent them into a complete frenzy 683 00:44:37,600 --> 00:44:39,400 of excitement and anxiety. 684 00:44:39,400 --> 00:44:41,960 The royal household were very concerned to know 685 00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:45,320 whether Salvesen's had a flagstaff here which could be flying 686 00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:48,280 the Royal standard as the Duke arrived. 687 00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:50,840 The Salvesen managers were anxious to know 688 00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:53,960 whether they should wear lounge suits for the occasion. 689 00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:59,320 He was wearing a duffle coat and he looked as if he needed a shave. 690 00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:01,480 In fact, he did need a shave. 691 00:45:07,240 --> 00:45:09,040 'The whaling of the 1950s 692 00:45:09,040 --> 00:45:13,400 'even became the centre of attention on the silver screen...' 693 00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:16,480 Whales! To starboard! 694 00:45:16,480 --> 00:45:19,960 '..with Salvesen's fleet providing the exotic backdrop 695 00:45:19,960 --> 00:45:24,040 'for a romantic adventure starring Alan Ladd.' 696 00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:25,440 Watch out for that rope! 697 00:45:29,960 --> 00:45:34,160 A hit! A hit! A hit! 698 00:45:34,160 --> 00:45:38,200 'Shooting whales was clearly an exciting and acceptable way 699 00:45:38,200 --> 00:45:42,720 'for Ladd's dashing hero to prove his manliness and sex appeal.' 700 00:45:42,720 --> 00:45:46,080 - Some business. - I'm going to get ready to go aboard. 701 00:45:53,240 --> 00:45:57,680 'By the late 1950s the price of whale oil was falling. 702 00:45:57,680 --> 00:46:00,200 'It was being replaced by vegetable oils 703 00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:03,480 'as the preferred fat for soaps and margarine. 704 00:46:03,480 --> 00:46:05,400 'To find new markets, 705 00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:08,960 'British whaling companies began their own research.' 706 00:46:08,960 --> 00:46:12,560 The role of science was to develop, as far as possible, 707 00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:16,600 by-products based on, particularly, whale meat. 708 00:46:16,600 --> 00:46:20,720 To squeeze every last drop of value out of the whale, 709 00:46:20,720 --> 00:46:25,600 the companies started to build meat extract plants like this one. 710 00:46:25,600 --> 00:46:29,920 They subjected the meat to all kinds of modern processes 711 00:46:29,920 --> 00:46:34,800 and out of the other end came a dark, viscous, gloopy substance. 712 00:46:34,800 --> 00:46:38,440 And it was sold in Europe for the new fad of instant soups 713 00:46:38,440 --> 00:46:41,360 and it made a lot of money for the companies. 714 00:46:41,360 --> 00:46:43,080 By the early 1960s, 715 00:46:43,080 --> 00:46:47,160 Salvesen's were making £1.3 million a year out of it. 716 00:46:48,800 --> 00:46:53,440 'But by now, the effects of a quota set way above any sustainable level 717 00:46:53,440 --> 00:46:56,160 'for 15 years was plain to see.' 718 00:46:58,200 --> 00:47:01,040 Well, I think we all knew that time was up. 719 00:47:02,640 --> 00:47:05,960 You were not getting the catches that you used to. 720 00:47:05,960 --> 00:47:07,640 There was nothing left. 721 00:47:07,640 --> 00:47:09,600 We were going down for the season, 722 00:47:09,600 --> 00:47:12,200 hunting for ages for a fish - you couldn't see them. 723 00:47:12,200 --> 00:47:15,480 The first year I went down they were all round you, they were everywhere. 724 00:47:16,600 --> 00:47:21,160 'In 1961, Salvesen's saw that Leith Harbour was losing money 725 00:47:21,160 --> 00:47:25,720 'and decided to run down the station and scuttle some of the catchers.' 726 00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:33,440 'Meanwhile, some countries were trying to make the most 727 00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:35,560 'of what was left down in the ice, 728 00:47:35,560 --> 00:47:38,800 'by increasing the scale of their pelagic fleets. 729 00:47:40,200 --> 00:47:43,520 'Japan bought the Baleana from Hector Whaling, 730 00:47:43,520 --> 00:47:47,400 'and the Soviet Union launched the largest whaling expeditions 731 00:47:47,400 --> 00:47:49,840 'the Antarctic has ever seen.' 732 00:47:49,840 --> 00:47:52,760 There was that many people down there, there's that many factories 733 00:47:52,760 --> 00:47:56,480 were down there - the Japanese, the Russians, South Africans. 734 00:47:56,480 --> 00:48:00,240 'A push at the IWC for a more realistic quota 735 00:48:00,240 --> 00:48:03,920 'had merely resulted in the breakdown of the existing system, 736 00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:07,880 'and the number of factory ships in the ice reached 21, 737 00:48:07,880 --> 00:48:10,920 'supplied by 270 catcher ships. 738 00:48:13,560 --> 00:48:17,080 'So, why have the scientists not stopped this happening? 739 00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:22,480 'I went back to the Natural History Museum to ask Professor Howard Roe.' 740 00:48:23,640 --> 00:48:27,520 - Howard. - Hello, Adam. - How are you? Lovely to see you. 741 00:48:27,520 --> 00:48:31,720 This is the place, isn't it, where whale science - 742 00:48:31,720 --> 00:48:35,560 the heart of whale science - was being done in the '50s and '60s? 743 00:48:35,560 --> 00:48:38,480 Yes, more or less underneath our feet... 744 00:48:38,480 --> 00:48:40,120 was the old Discovery hut. 745 00:48:40,120 --> 00:48:44,520 It was a black shed, basically, constructed in the 1920s 746 00:48:44,520 --> 00:48:47,320 to house the samples from the Discovery Investigation. 747 00:48:47,320 --> 00:48:51,240 Why did it take so long for the science, or the investigation 748 00:48:51,240 --> 00:48:55,040 they were making, actually to impinge on the industry? 749 00:48:55,040 --> 00:48:58,960 You could not hope to persuade the whaling industry 750 00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:04,400 or any regulatory body, without the basic data to support the argument, 751 00:49:04,400 --> 00:49:09,080 which was, after all, exactly why the Discovery Investigation was set up. 752 00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:13,840 It was set up to provide the data which would allow regulation. 753 00:49:13,840 --> 00:49:17,920 - And that is exactly what it did. - In the end. - In the end. 754 00:49:17,920 --> 00:49:25,520 It took until the late '50s/early '60s before the group of scientists 755 00:49:25,520 --> 00:49:29,760 began to encompass specialists in population dynamics, 756 00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:34,720 by the appointment of Radway Allen, Doug Chapman, and Sidney Holt. 757 00:49:34,720 --> 00:49:39,440 Basically, we were bringing what we now call "mathematical modelling" 758 00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:45,440 from the fisheries world into the whaling world. 759 00:49:45,440 --> 00:49:50,280 Biologists had been collecting information, measuring the whales, 760 00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:53,440 looking at their ovaries to see how many babies they'd had 761 00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:55,440 and that kind of thing. 762 00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:59,960 But none of those scientists had any what we'd call "numeracy" 763 00:49:59,960 --> 00:50:05,280 and it was that skill that we brought to bear on the data 764 00:50:05,280 --> 00:50:09,520 that the biologists had been collecting. 765 00:50:09,520 --> 00:50:15,280 Tucked in their office drawers was all this stuff about... 766 00:50:15,280 --> 00:50:18,600 reproduction rates and things like that. 767 00:50:18,600 --> 00:50:23,000 So the first thing we did the first two years was to assemble it all, 768 00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:27,560 put it on punch cards and as soon as we looked at the data 769 00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:31,520 we could tell the situation was absolutely disastrous. 770 00:50:31,520 --> 00:50:36,680 Within a year the blue whales were very close to extinction. 771 00:50:36,680 --> 00:50:43,040 The fin whale - tiny fraction of what it had been. 772 00:50:43,040 --> 00:50:48,280 This is the earplug of a fin whale. Just the core end of it. 773 00:50:48,280 --> 00:50:51,720 The outer casing goes all the way to the outside... 774 00:50:51,720 --> 00:50:54,480 and it might be three feet long, four feet long. 775 00:50:54,480 --> 00:50:56,920 - That much ear wax? - Yes. 776 00:50:56,920 --> 00:51:01,360 We couldn't, at the time, tell the ages of the whales, 777 00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:06,040 and being able to say how old a whale is, is crucial. 778 00:51:06,040 --> 00:51:08,240 This is the important bit. 779 00:51:08,240 --> 00:51:13,320 This is where the tympanic membrane goes and that creates this inner core 780 00:51:13,320 --> 00:51:17,240 and it creates alternate light and dark layers. 781 00:51:17,240 --> 00:51:20,800 The light coloured layer, which is full of fat, 782 00:51:20,800 --> 00:51:24,760 - when they're feeding... - It's the krill-y layer. - Yes. 783 00:51:24,760 --> 00:51:27,880 And the dark layer, in the subtropics, when they're not... 784 00:51:27,880 --> 00:51:29,560 Not breeding. 785 00:51:29,560 --> 00:51:32,680 Pair of layers equals one year in the life of whales. 786 00:51:32,680 --> 00:51:37,640 - That is exactly like a tree. A winter and summer ring. - Yes. 787 00:51:37,640 --> 00:51:40,240 So, what was the effect of that discovery 788 00:51:40,240 --> 00:51:42,760 on the way people understood whales? 789 00:51:42,760 --> 00:51:46,600 Well, it gave the statistical people, the modelling people, 790 00:51:46,600 --> 00:51:50,280 a firm basis on which to base their statistics. 791 00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:53,840 They'd know the absolute age of the animal throughout its life cycle. 792 00:51:53,840 --> 00:51:56,320 We'd done our work in such a way 793 00:51:56,320 --> 00:52:00,520 that it was extremely difficult to criticise it. 794 00:52:00,520 --> 00:52:05,520 The science was so overwhelming they couldn't deny it. 795 00:52:05,520 --> 00:52:09,960 We said that the blue whales they should stop killing, anyway. 796 00:52:09,960 --> 00:52:13,760 And reduce the blue whale units, as they were, 797 00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:18,880 to a quarter or a fifth of what they had been. 798 00:52:18,880 --> 00:52:22,400 So, why did industry accept that things had to change? 799 00:52:22,400 --> 00:52:26,000 - Was it the science? Or was it money? - It was a combination of two. 800 00:52:26,000 --> 00:52:28,880 They recognised that the science was becoming harder 801 00:52:28,880 --> 00:52:32,000 and harder to argue against. 802 00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:35,080 It also knew perfectly well that the number of whales was falling, 803 00:52:35,080 --> 00:52:37,600 so it was economically much less profitable 804 00:52:37,600 --> 00:52:39,800 to send whaling fleets to the Antarctic. 805 00:52:39,800 --> 00:52:42,480 And if you had to choose between those two factors, 806 00:52:42,480 --> 00:52:46,600 economics and science, which was the more powerful? 807 00:52:46,600 --> 00:52:48,560 Sadly, economics. 808 00:52:51,840 --> 00:52:54,240 'By the time Sidney and his colleagues 809 00:52:54,240 --> 00:52:57,040 'released their damning report on whale stocks, 810 00:52:57,040 --> 00:53:00,640 'Salvesen's factory ships were making a loss.' 811 00:53:00,640 --> 00:53:03,960 They were sending down these factories and all these men, 812 00:53:03,960 --> 00:53:07,400 and not catching fish, so therefore, he wasn't making any money. 813 00:53:07,400 --> 00:53:10,600 Well, the whales were gone, weren't they? They were gone. 814 00:53:10,600 --> 00:53:13,400 'Aware that the writing was finally on the wall, 815 00:53:13,400 --> 00:53:17,200 'Salvesen sold their factory ship quota to the Japanese, 816 00:53:17,200 --> 00:53:19,960 'bringing centuries of British whaling, 817 00:53:19,960 --> 00:53:25,360 'including 55 years in the Antarctic, to an end.' 818 00:53:25,360 --> 00:53:29,280 You were sorry to see your way of life go, that you enjoy. 819 00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:36,680 But you understood why and I think, along with every other whaler, 820 00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:41,560 would say they were glad we pulled back from the brink. 821 00:53:41,560 --> 00:53:44,400 'After British whaling had ended, 822 00:53:44,400 --> 00:53:48,040 'the IWC quota available to the remaining countries 823 00:53:48,040 --> 00:53:50,000 'was drastically reduced, 824 00:53:50,000 --> 00:53:52,920 'although more slowly than the science recommended. 825 00:53:54,440 --> 00:53:58,840 'The hunting of blue whales was banned in 1966. 826 00:53:58,840 --> 00:54:02,280 'With new science and anti-whaling campaigns...' 827 00:54:02,280 --> 00:54:05,040 Stop killing the whales. 828 00:54:05,040 --> 00:54:09,520 '..the taking of fin and sei whales was banned in the 1970s. 829 00:54:09,520 --> 00:54:16,240 'Finally, in 1986, the IWC declared a moratorium on whaling, 830 00:54:16,240 --> 00:54:19,960 'until a time when a sustainable approach could be guaranteed. 831 00:54:22,320 --> 00:54:28,080 'Japan, Norway and Iceland continue to hunt whales, 832 00:54:28,080 --> 00:54:31,000 'predominantly the small, more plentiful, minke whale. 833 00:54:34,040 --> 00:54:39,920 'In total, over 1.6 million whales were killed in the Antarctic. 834 00:54:41,440 --> 00:54:44,440 'So where does this leave their populations today? 835 00:54:46,000 --> 00:54:49,320 'Ecologist Mark Carwardine has an up-to-date picture.' 836 00:54:50,720 --> 00:54:54,640 In some species - humpback whale, for example, southern right whale - 837 00:54:54,640 --> 00:54:56,600 they seem to be doing pretty well, 838 00:54:56,600 --> 00:55:00,240 and some of those populations are increasing as fast as theoretically 839 00:55:00,240 --> 00:55:04,880 possible, so they're doubling every ten years or so, which is fantastic. 840 00:55:04,880 --> 00:55:10,120 Other species, blue whale being perhaps the frightening example, 841 00:55:10,120 --> 00:55:12,440 doesn't seem to be bouncing back at all. 842 00:55:12,440 --> 00:55:14,680 We don't know exactly how many there are, 843 00:55:14,680 --> 00:55:18,000 maybe somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 worldwide. 844 00:55:18,000 --> 00:55:21,080 And it may be that they're spread out so thinly 845 00:55:21,080 --> 00:55:24,560 that there aren't to actually build the numbers back up. 846 00:55:24,560 --> 00:55:27,240 So, although we stopped whaling in the nick of time, 847 00:55:27,240 --> 00:55:31,120 literally the eleventh hour, before the biggest animal on the planet 848 00:55:31,120 --> 00:55:36,160 disappeared altogether, it may still be that it doesn't make a comeback. 849 00:55:39,040 --> 00:55:41,960 'Leith Harbour's working life didn't quite finish 850 00:55:41,960 --> 00:55:44,560 'with the end of British whaling. 851 00:55:44,560 --> 00:55:47,920 'In the mid-60's, Salvesen's had leased the station 852 00:55:47,920 --> 00:55:51,200 'to a Japanese company to produce whale meat, 853 00:55:51,200 --> 00:55:54,240 'a high-value dish back in Japan. 854 00:55:54,240 --> 00:55:57,640 'But after two years even they couldn't make it pay 855 00:55:57,640 --> 00:56:01,240 'and Leith Harbour was finally abandoned for good. 856 00:56:08,840 --> 00:56:12,720 'Responsibility for the ghost town has now reverted to the government 857 00:56:12,720 --> 00:56:15,360 'of this British overseas territory, 858 00:56:15,360 --> 00:56:19,560 'who are in the process of working out just how to manage 859 00:56:19,560 --> 00:56:24,880 'this decaying, but unique relic of our industrial past.' 860 00:56:26,040 --> 00:56:28,160 It's 50 years now 861 00:56:28,160 --> 00:56:34,400 since Salvesen's last expedition came back from the Antarctic. 862 00:56:36,080 --> 00:56:37,920 It's now history. 863 00:56:41,200 --> 00:56:43,120 Of course it should be remembered. 864 00:56:43,120 --> 00:56:45,480 It happened, it was necessary, 865 00:56:45,480 --> 00:56:47,840 it happened, and you can't deny history. 866 00:56:49,800 --> 00:56:52,840 In one way, the whole history of whaling in the 20th century 867 00:56:52,840 --> 00:56:55,160 is just a business story. 868 00:56:55,160 --> 00:56:57,360 There was a huge market in Europe. 869 00:56:57,360 --> 00:57:00,640 Companies came out here. Got the whales. 870 00:57:00,640 --> 00:57:04,800 And serviced that market - and made a huge amount of money in doing it. 871 00:57:04,800 --> 00:57:07,920 But, of course, it's far, far more than that. 872 00:57:07,920 --> 00:57:12,920 The people who came whaling did that with enormous skill 873 00:57:12,920 --> 00:57:15,640 and courage and enterprise. 874 00:57:15,640 --> 00:57:19,680 These were, for me, the greatest memories, 875 00:57:19,680 --> 00:57:23,160 and I would love to go back down there and just see it all again. 876 00:57:23,160 --> 00:57:27,520 Right, further over. Come on, you can do it. 877 00:57:27,520 --> 00:57:30,440 I'm very proud to have been a whaler. 878 00:57:30,440 --> 00:57:31,920 Very, very proud indeed. 879 00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:37,120 It was part of British life. 880 00:57:38,560 --> 00:57:41,120 The cost was really enormous - 881 00:57:41,120 --> 00:57:43,960 over a third of a million blue whales, 882 00:57:43,960 --> 00:57:47,480 nearly 700,000 fin whales. 883 00:57:47,480 --> 00:57:52,240 And all for what? To make margarine and soap. 884 00:57:52,240 --> 00:57:56,520 I don't think we have the right to bring any species to extinction, 885 00:57:56,520 --> 00:57:59,200 and we ditched that just in time. 886 00:57:59,200 --> 00:58:01,000 I'm glad it's finished, you know? 887 00:58:01,000 --> 00:58:05,000 Because it was...pretty cruel when you think about it. 888 00:58:05,000 --> 00:58:07,920 It's deeply ambivalent, this story. 889 00:58:07,920 --> 00:58:11,960 And I can't really resolve that. 890 00:58:11,960 --> 00:58:14,520 And I think that what I feel in the end 891 00:58:14,520 --> 00:58:17,640 is that I very, very much admire the whalers - 892 00:58:17,640 --> 00:58:22,200 what they did, the courage they did it with, the skill they did it with. 893 00:58:22,200 --> 00:58:25,680 But I really, really hate the whaling. 894 00:58:27,280 --> 00:58:30,520 All I can say is, you know, I don't want... 895 00:58:30,520 --> 00:58:33,160 whalers to be forgotten. 896 00:58:33,160 --> 00:58:34,320 That's good. 897 00:58:34,320 --> 00:58:35,760 CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS