4
THE BIOLOGY OF EUPHAUSIIDS
especially interested in this species to refer to Marr’s volume and not
to depend on the relatively scant reference made to this species in this
work. Boden et al. (1955), Nemoto (1959), Brinton (1962a), and
Ponomareva (1963) have produced major works on the euphausiids of
the Pacific Ocean, Einarsson (1945) on those of the North Atlantic,
Ruud (1932) and John (1936) on those of the Antarctic and these
publications along with those of Sars (1885), Sheard (1953), Zimmer and
Griiner (1956), Nemoto (1966), and Mauchline (1967b) are required by
the specialist as companions to this volume.
The importance of the eighty or so species of animals that constitute the Euphausiacea lies in the fact that they occur in vast
numbers, comprise a significant proportion of the biomass of the oceans
of the world, and are an important, and often major, source of food for
many marine animals-whales7 fish, seals, and even birds-that, in
turn, are being required increasingly as a source of nutrition for the
human race. The suggestion has been made several times by Sir Alister
Hardy (1965) that it may be possible to harvest certain species of
euphausiids, especially Euphausia superba, directly for human consumption. The Norwegians, Russians and Japanese are a t present
investigating the possibilities of netting large quantities of euphausiids
that occur around their coasts or in the Antarctic and are examining
different fishing techniques.
There are, of course, inherent risks in prosecuting such a fishery.
The world’s stock of whales is in a fantastic position at present, hovering
between a stock which, if left alone, might in time recover and a stock
which is so depleted that recovery, if it takes place a t all, will not take
place in our time. The earliest whale fishery appears to have been off
the coast of Flanders in the ninth century but the first notable fishery
was that of the Basques in the Bay of Biscay. By the fourteenth century
these whalers were working the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, and
then the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the coasts of Greenland. The early
seventeenth century saw the start of Arctic whaling while the Japanese
had probably been fishing the Pacific whales for several centuries by
this time. The whalers from the east coast of America, during the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, pushed southwards after
sperm oil and, rounding Cape Horn, started catching Pacific whales.
By 1880, the common or Greenland right whale was nearly extinct and
only the sperm whale remained an economical proposition. The other
whales were too large or fast for the whalers to catch. Sven Foyn, however, invented the harpoon gun in 1865 and this came into common use
about 1880. Now the fin and blue whales could be hunted and hunted
they have been. Scarcity of whales on the normal grounds caused ships
THE BIOLOGY OF EUPHAUSIIDS
especially interested in this species to refer to Marr’s volume and not
to depend on the relatively scant reference made to this species in this
work. Boden et al. (1955), Nemoto (1959), Brinton (1962a), and
Ponomareva (1963) have produced major works on the euphausiids of
the Pacific Ocean, Einarsson (1945) on those of the North Atlantic,
Ruud (1932) and John (1936) on those of the Antarctic and these
publications along with those of Sars (1885), Sheard (1953), Zimmer and
Griiner (1956), Nemoto (1966), and Mauchline (1967b) are required by
the specialist as companions to this volume.
The importance of the eighty or so species of animals that constitute the Euphausiacea lies in the fact that they occur in vast
numbers, comprise a significant proportion of the biomass of the oceans
of the world, and are an important, and often major, source of food for
many marine animals-whales7 fish, seals, and even birds-that, in
turn, are being required increasingly as a source of nutrition for the
human race. The suggestion has been made several times by Sir Alister
Hardy (1965) that it may be possible to harvest certain species of
euphausiids, especially Euphausia superba, directly for human consumption. The Norwegians, Russians and Japanese are a t present
investigating the possibilities of netting large quantities of euphausiids
that occur around their coasts or in the Antarctic and are examining
different fishing techniques.
There are, of course, inherent risks in prosecuting such a fishery.
The world’s stock of whales is in a fantastic position at present, hovering
between a stock which, if left alone, might in time recover and a stock
which is so depleted that recovery, if it takes place a t all, will not take
place in our time. The earliest whale fishery appears to have been off
the coast of Flanders in the ninth century but the first notable fishery
was that of the Basques in the Bay of Biscay. By the fourteenth century
these whalers were working the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, and
then the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the coasts of Greenland. The early
seventeenth century saw the start of Arctic whaling while the Japanese
had probably been fishing the Pacific whales for several centuries by
this time. The whalers from the east coast of America, during the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, pushed southwards after
sperm oil and, rounding Cape Horn, started catching Pacific whales.
By 1880, the common or Greenland right whale was nearly extinct and
only the sperm whale remained an economical proposition. The other
whales were too large or fast for the whalers to catch. Sven Foyn, however, invented the harpoon gun in 1865 and this came into common use
about 1880. Now the fin and blue whales could be hunted and hunted
they have been. Scarcity of whales on the normal grounds caused ships