Alfred A. Berzin began to study whales in 1955 at the Pacific Research and Fisheries Center (TINRO) in Vladivostok

where he is still working at the present time. In the years before the rapid development of Soviet whaling only two fleets (Aleut and Second Kuril) were hunting whales

Yablokov, A. V.

English

Aquatic Commons

70(2) 3
brunt of this whaling) and in the North 
Pacific. The first gives a brief account 
of the origins of modern whaling in the 
Russian Far East. The second (repro-
duced from Clapham and Baker, 2002) 
gives a summary of reported vs. actual 
catches for all species in the Southern 
Hemisphere (see also Clapham et al., 
In review, for a detailed breakdown of 
humpback whale catches, by factory 
fleet). The final appendix provides a 
partial accounting of catches of large 
whales in the North Pacific from 1961 
to 1979; the true catch records from 
this ocean are less complete than for the 
Southern Hemisphere. We hope that this 
additional information serves to provide 
a clearer picture of Soviet whaling as 
related here by Fred Berzin.
Acknowledgments
Funding for the translation and edit-
ing of this memoir was provided by 
a contract to Seastar Scientific from 
the National Marine Fisheries Service 
(Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Se-
attle). Additional funding came from 
a grant from the International Fund for 
Animal Welfare. We are very grateful 
to these institutions, and to both Doug 
Demaster and Patrick Ramage, for their 
support of this work. We also thank Jeff 
Breiwick, Gary Duker, Jim Lee, Randy 
Reeves, and Kim Shelden for their 
helpful comments on the manuscript, 
and Ian Hart for supplying details of 
construction and technical specifications 
of Soviet whaling factory ships.
Literature cited
Clapham, P., and C. S. Baker. 2002. Modern 
whaling. In W. F. Perrin, B. Würsig, and J. 
G. M. Thewissen (Editors), Encyclopedia 
of Marine Mammals, p. 1,328–1,332. Acad. 
Press, San Diego, Calif.
________ , Yu. Mikhalev, W. Franklin, D. Paton, 
C. S. Baker, Y. V. Ivashchenko, and R. L. 
Brownell, Jr. In review. Catches of humpback 
whales in the Southern Ocean, 1947–1973. 
Mar. Fish. Rev.
Doroshenko, N. V. 1997. Alfred A. Berzin, 1930–
1996. Mar. Mammal Sci. 13:535–536.
Ivashchenko, Y. V., P. J. Clapham, and R. L. 
Brownell, R.L. Jr. (Editors). 2007. Scientific 
reports of Soviet whaling expeditions in the 
North Pacific, 1955-1978. U.S. Dep. Commer., 
NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-AFSC-175, 36 
p. [Transl. by Y. V. Ivashchenko].
Yablokov, A. V. 1994. Validity of whaling data. 
Nature 367:108.
________ , V. A. Zemsky, Y. A. Mikhalev, V. V. 
Tormosov, and A. A. Berzin. 1998. Data on 
Soviet whaling in the Antarctic in 1947–1972 
(population aspects). Russ. J. Ecol. 29:38–42.
Alfred A. Berzin began to study 
whales in 1955 at the Pacific Research 
and Fisheries Center (TINRO) in Vladi-
vostok where he is still working at the 
present time.1  In the years before the 
rapid development of Soviet whaling 
only two fleets (Aleut and Second Kuril) 
were hunting whales.
In the winter of 1955, Berzin took 
part in an exploratory expedition aboard 
a catcher boat in the area off the Kuril 
Islands, and in the fall of 1956 he was 
on the scientific vessel attached to a 
Bering Sea expedition organized by the 
U.S.S.R. Academy of Science.
In 1958, TINRO created a laboratory 
to study marine mammals, and Berzin 
became its director.  In 1959, he led the 
scientific expedition that surveyed the 
waters around the Aleutian Islands and 
Bristol Bay, where for the first time large 
concentrations of humpback and right 
whales2 were discovered. Subsequently, 3 Translator’s note: The Soviet (and now Rus-
sian) system of scientific degrees is different 
from the one used in the United States, the 
Candidate degree is broadly equivalent to a 
Doctor of Science.
4 Berzin, A. A. 1971.  Kashalot.  Pischevaya 
Promyshlennost, Moscow.
A. A. Berzin and His Memoir
he took part in many scientific expedi-
tions on Soviet, American, and Japanese 
ships in different areas of the central 
North Pacific, in the Okhotsk Sea, and 
in the eastern North Pacific.
At the end of the 1950’s, Berzin began 
a study of whales from the Aleut whal-
ing fleet and at land stations in the Kuril 
Islands. In 1961–62, the author led the 
work on one of the Antarctic whaling 
fleets, the Sovetskaya Rossia. In subse-
quent years he continued studies from 
the northern whaling fleets.
Berzin defended his dissertation for 
the degree of Candidate of Biological 
Science3 in 1964. In 1971, he pub-
lished a large monograph4 dedicated 
to one of the main exploited species, 
the sperm whale.  This monograph was 
translated into English in 19725 and 
received wide international recognition. 
1 Translator’s note: Alfred (Fred) Berzin died in 
April 1996.
2 Genus and species of whales are listed in 
Appendices II and III.
In 1974, Berzin was granted the degree 
of Doctor of Biological Science for this 
monograph. He authored more than 100 
scientific papers, many of which were 
published in foreign countries, primarily 
in the reports of the Scientific Commit-
tee (SC) of the International Whaling 
Commission (IWC).
This memoir is written in popular 
science form, and it represents the 
first attempt of a witness to relate the 
crimes of Soviet whaling. It is an ob-
jective description of the outrages that 
were happening on the factory ships in 
the Antarctic, with examples of their 
heartless vandalism. The memoir is 
well-written. 
The combination of the scientific 
reliability of the account, together with 
the testimonies of the witnesses to these 
events, make this memoir unique; fur-
thermore, it represents the first honest ex-
position of the secrets of Soviet whaling.
A.V. Yablokov
Russian Center for Environmental Policy
Moscow
9 February 1995
Yulia Ivashchenko, Phil Clapham,  
and Bob Brownell
Seattle, Washington
September 2008
5 Berzin, A. A.  1972.  The sperm whale.  Transl. 
E. H. Z. Blake, Israel Prog. Sci. Transl.  Keter 
Press, Jerusalem, Israel.


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