The Whaling Industry
Stone Age peoples of both hemispheres hunted whales in small rowboats, caught them with harpoons of bone or stone, and killed them with lances and arrows. Whaling did not become an industry, however, until the Middle Ages. The Basques hunted whales in the Bay of Biscay as early as the 11th century, and during the next three or four centuries spread their operations into arctic waters. They were probably the first commercial whalers. When other Europeans took to whaling, they hired Basques to man their ships and process their catch. During the 17th century a great whaling industry was centered in Svalbard (Spitsbergen).
In those early days, whaling was done in rowboats and small sailing vessels that did not venture far from shore. Right whales were the ones usually hunted, and they were towed to shore. Processing consisted of flensing (stripping the blubber from skin and flesh) and trying-out (boiling) the blubber to extract the oil.
As whales became scarce in one area, whalers would seek other waters. In time, large ships sailed far out into the ocean in pursuit of right whales and sperm whales. These whaling ships were equipped to process their catch on board.
New England became the center of the whaling industry in the early 19th century, and whalers from New England sailed the high seas the world over. Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick (1851) paints a vivid picture of whaling in this period. The discovery of petroleum in Pennsylvania in the 1850's marked the decline of New England whaling, because mineral oil soon became cheaper to produce than whale oil.
Technological developments in the 19th and 20th centuries greatly increased the efficiency of whaling. The explosive harpoon, invented in 1868, made it much easier to kill whales. The factory ship, introduced in 1925, made it possible to process a large number of whales in a relatively short time. Later, sonar and aircraft observation made it easier to locate whales. The materials obtained from whales were used to make a variety of commercial products, including cosmetics, soap, lubricants, livestock feed, and fertilizer. Due to large-scale whaling operations, many species of whales became endangered.
In 1946, the major whaling countries formed the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to regulate the number and types of whales killed. In 1986, the IWC banned all commercial whaling. However, three member countries—Norway, Iceland, and Japan—continued to take some whales under an exemption that allows whales to be caught for research purposes. These countries believe that commercial whaling should be allowed for relatively plentiful species, such as the minke.
Iceland, intending to resume commercial whaling, resigned from the IWC in 1992. In 1993, Norway resumed commercial whaling in violation of the IWC ban. Since 1972, when the Marine Mammal Protection Act took effect, the United States has prohibited whaling (except by the indigenous peoples of Alaska). The act also bans the importation of whale products.
Other threats to whale populations are the commercial harvesting of krill and the release into the ocean of toxic industrial and agricultural pollutants.
Sadly, baleen whales are in danger. Industrial whaling fleets in the 1800’s and 1900’s slaughtered too many whales. Some species may never recover. Blue, fin, humpback, and right whales are all in danger of becoming extinct.
Through an international pact, most countries, including the United States, no longer hunt whales. A few, such as Norway and Japan, still do.
Whaling, however, is not the only human activity that makes the seas unsafe for whales. Ships and boats sometimes collide with whales. Whales can also become entangled in fishing nets and drown. Other dangers to whales include the overfishing of krill by humans and pollution in ocean waters.
Not all whales are endangered. Some have been able to recover from the era of whaling. The gray whale has been one success story. It was recently removed from the U.S. endangered species list.
The toothed whales most in danger are the river dolphins. People have killed many of these animals. People have also destroyed the animals’ habitats. Scientists fear that the Baiji dolphins of China may soon become extinct.
The vaquita (vuh KEE tuh) porpoise, which lives in the Gulf of California, is also highly endangered. There may be only a few hundred of them left.
Sperm whales have been endangered for over 30 years. These great animals had been hunted almost to the point of extinction. Then, in 1984, a law was passed to ban commercial whaling. It is hoped that this law will help the sperm whales continue to increase in numbers.
Conservationists have been working hard to save the whales. But some whalers, as well as some nations, continue to hunt whales. And so the future of these magnificent animals remains uncertain.
Studying whales is a challenge. They live underwater and are constantly on the move.
All sorts of basic biological information about whales can be difficult to gather. Whales are so huge, it is nearly impossible to weigh them in the wild. Males and females look very similar.
Whales also make noises that people cannot hear. It takes special equipment to listen to whales’ calls and songs. Yet another challenge, a blue whale may live 50, 60, or even more than 70 years, which is much longer than the span of a biologist’s career.
Despite these obstacles, biologists do study whales. They observe them from boats and also from planes. More recently, scientists have begun tagging whales and using satellites to track their movements. From the satellite data, scientists can see how far a whale swims in a day and how deep it dives. They can also follow its migration routes and its behaviors at night.
Whales make up the order Cetacea and are sometimes called cetaceans. Baleen whales are of the suborder Mysticeti; toothed whales, of the suborder Odontoceti.
The gray whale is Eschrichtius robustus of the family Eschrichtidae. The blue whale is Balaenoptera musculus; Bryde's, B. edeni; fin, B. physalus; minke, B. acutorostrata; sei, B. boredlis; humpback, Megaptera novaeangliae. All belong to the family Balaenopteridae. The northern and southern right whales are Balaena glacialis (or Eubalaena glacialis); bowhead, B. mysticetus; pygmy, Capereamarginata. All belong to the family Balaenidae. The sperm whale is Physeter catodon of the family Physeteridae. The North Atlantic bottle-nosed whale is Hyperoodon amputtaius of the family Ziphiidae.
