Material.

The material for the present study includes records of approximately 9,000 humpbacks in New Zealand coastal waters recorded as follows:—By whalers at Tory Channel and ex-whalers at other parts of the New Zealand coast; keepers at all manned lighthouses; crews of trawlers and other coastal vessels; various aircraft pilots; logbooks, diaries and other records concerning past whaling station sites. Day by day sightings or catch returns by the Tory Channel whalers have been recorded for 36 seasons and include 4,112 humpbacks, while data from another six seasons brings the total to 5,002 observed or taken in the Cook Strait area. Comparable data for only three of the winter and two of the “summer” seasons are available from Whangamumu for 423 humpbacks, while seasonal tallies for another 18 years total 886, and from Kaikoura for seven seasons total 68. Ex-whalers from sites such as Kaikoura and a number of localities around Mahia Peninsula and Bay of Plenty could not provide dated records, but by interviewing several independently in each area it was possible to obtain corroborated statements on the relative abundance of humpbacks in various months at each locality.

Whale observing from lighthouses was arranged through the courtesy of the New Zealand Marine Department, which asked all keepers to watch for whales, and monthly returns were forwarded by the principal keepers of each of the 29 manned lighthouses around the New Zealand coast (for positions see Fig. 2). During three and a-half years, 1,051 monthly returns were collected, representing some scanning by at least one and usually more men for 30 day periods in each return, but for various reasons, including the unfavourable situation of a number of lighthouses as lookouts for scanning open water, only 118 returns listed definite whale sightings. However, the latter listed approximately 2,000 dated sightings; the exact number being indeterminate because large schools were sighted at some stations and the number of whales in each could be estimated only approximately. In addition, the writer has corresponded directly with a number of the keepers and interviewed others on specific points concerning whale sightings.

An extremely useful supplement to this data was obtained through correspondence, and a number of interviews with the masters of 24 trawlers and some other vessels whose combined operations covered most of the waters inside 10–15 miles of the New Zealand coast. This was especially useful for areas where the lighthouses are unfavourably placed for viewing the open sea or where the whales tend to move too far from the coast to be seen by observers from shore. Aircraft sightings have been forwarded by courtesy of the Royal New Zealand Air Force and the Ministry of Works Aerodromes Branch.

It is necessary to stress that although the actual number of humpbacks sighted at any one time from lighthouses, vessels or aircraft, was usually small, the fact that any were sighted at a particular time by observers who were not trained in whale recognition and who were usually engaged at the time on their own duties, can reasonably be taken as a certain indication that many more humpbacks were in the area than the recorded totals alone would suggest. Only the actual numbers recorded are included in this account, but the circumstances under which the observations were carried out should be borne in mind and due allowance made; especially when comparing such totals with those recorded by professional whalers who maintain a permanent lookout during the whaling season.

There is little specific data on catches from many of the nineteenth century shore station sites, but although right whales were the main objective at first, humpbacks were also taken in increasing numbers, so the location of the station sites is