Whaling

V

Early Whaling Methods

The earliest whaling vessels were probably small rowing boats launched from the shore whenever whales were seen. The early American vessels were sloops of 30 to 40 metric tons. Gradually schooners and brigs of 100 to 150 metric tons were added, and by the 1800s, ships of 300 to 400 metric tons were predominant.

Early whaling voyages lasted only a few weeks. As the number of coastal whales declined, the voyages became longer. During the peak period of American whaling, from 1835 to 1865, the average voyage was two and a half to three years. The longest recorded voyage was the 11-year outing on the ship Nile of New London, which lasted from May 1858 to April 1869.

The size of the crew depended on the number of hunting boats, known as whaleboats, carried on the ship. Usually, the number of whaleboats varied from two to four, although sometimes there were more. Each 10 m (32 ft) whaleboat required a boatheader (usually one of the mates), a harpooner, and four oarsmen. Certain crewmembers, such as the cook, steward, cooper, blacksmith, engineer, and cabin boy, never went out in the boats.

The British paid their whalers a set sum of money per month, whereas the Americans paid by the lay or share system. Each crewmember agreed to serve for the whole voyage for a given percentage, which varied according to the member's position. Captains received about 1/12 of the total value of the oil and bone taken on a voyage; so-called green hands, or unskilled crewmembers, got 1/175; cabin boys received as little as 1/3500; and other members received percentages according to their positions and experience.

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Originally, whales were attacked with hand-thrown harpoons attached to whale-line and then killed with handheld lances. The whale-line kept the whale tethered to the whaleboat until the animal tired and the whalers could come alongside to kill the animal with the handheld lances. Later, particularly in hunting bowhead whales, shoulder guns and bomb lances were used. The bomb lance was a metal cylinder fired from a shoulder gun. It contained explosives and a fuse and was designed to improve the efficiency of the hunt by reducing the number of animals struck but lost.

VI

Modern Whaling

Modern commercial whaling began with the invention of the explosive harpoon in the 1860s by the Norwegian Svend Foyn and the development of fast steam-powered catcher boats and steam winches. The explosive harpoon was tipped with a bomb that would explode inside the whale after it entered, killing the animal much more quickly than with handheld lances or bomb lances. The faster, steam-powered boats allowed whalers to hunt the large, faster swimming species, such as the blue whale and the fin whale that sank when killed.

These modern developments led to whaling in the Antarctic region where explorers had reported observing vast numbers of whales. Whaling stations were initially confined to land for practical reasons. The catcher boats sailed out on the hunt but had to remain within some 35 hours of the whaling station or the whale products would spoil before returning.

The first Antarctic whaling station was established in 1904 on South Georgia, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean. Whalers took 195 whales that year. By 1913 there were 6 land stations and 21 floating factories. A floating factory allowed the whales to be processed on board the ship, but practical difficulties meant that initially the floating factories had to be moored in harbors. The total catch in the Antarctic in 1913 was 10,760 whales. Perhaps the decisive innovation was the invention of the stern slipway for factory ships in 1925. With this invention whales could be hauled up into the factory ships at sea, thus allowing them to operate throughout the open seas of the Southern, or Antarctic, Ocean without returning to the land station.

In 1931 the 41 factory ships operating in the Antarctic took more than 37,000 whales. This overharvesting led to a catastrophic decline in the price of whale oil. By 1939 the primary whaling nations included Norway, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, and The Netherlands. In the early 20th century more than 2 million whales were killed by the modern whaling industry.

VII

Regulation

Overproduction and the resulting low prices of whale products led whaling companies to recognize the need for international management measures in the early 1930s. Following World War II (1939-1945), 14 nations signed the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. The convention, which also established the International Whaling Commission (IWC), was seen as a major step forward and a precedent for international regulation of natural resources.

The convention’s stated aim was “to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry.” The convention also established a requirement for actions to be taken based on scientific advice. Conservation was thus given equal importance with economics. This was a praiseworthy aim, but finding the balance between conservation and the interests of the whaling industry proved difficult. The subsequent history of the IWC represented a struggle to find such a balance. Despite the best intentions a combination of economics, greed, and a lack of biological information by the early 1960s led to a situation so critical that all countries recognized the need for effective action.

Political pressure, along with improvements in science, led to the adoption of a cautious method for setting catch limits. By 1975 several species and stocks of whales were completely protected and catch limits for others lowered. As a result of further scientific questions and concerns in several Western nations about the morality of whaling, however, the IWC by 1982 had agreed to a pause, or moratorium, in commercial whaling beginning in 1986. The moratorium was to have been reviewed in 1990 following a “comprehensive assessment” of whale stocks. This assessment was a major undertaking for the IWC Scientific Committee, and part of it is still ongoing. In 1992, by using computer simulations, the committee completed work on the most rigorously tested scientific management procedure for any natural resource. It would allow limited whaling on stocks shown to be abundant. Although the IWC adopted this procedure for calculating catch limits, as of 2003 the moratorium remained in place while negotiations continued on the nonscientific aspects of whale management, including an effective inspection and control scheme for monitoring the limited whaling.

Negotiations have proven to be extremely difficult due to the wide range of views on whaling held by IWC member countries. The lack of progress led to the formation in 1992 of the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (NAMMCO) by Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands. The members cooperate on conservation and management for all species of cetaceans (whales, porpoises, and dolphins) and pinnipeds (seals and walruses) in the North Atlantic. The formation of NAMMCO was seen by some as a warning to the IWC that if it did not allow sustainable whaling, members of NAMMCO would leave the IWC and begin whaling under that organization.

Despite the IWC moratorium on commercial whaling, some whaling does occur. Subsistence whaling by aboriginal (native) peoples is not subject to the moratorium. Limited whaling for local consumption is allowed for native peoples in Bequia, an island belonging to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Chukotka, an autonomous area in the Siberian region of the Russian Federation; for native peoples in Greenland; for the Makah tribe in the state of Washington, and for the Inuit people in Alaska. Norway carries out commercial whaling for minke whales in its national coastal waters, based on quotas recommended by the IWC’s Scientific Committee. In 1982 Norway had legally claimed an exemption to the moratorium, which is the right of any country under the terms of the 1946 convention.

Although now somewhat controversial, the 1946 convention also allows countries to grant special permits to catch whales for scientific purposes. As of 2003, Japan granted its nationals permits to hunt minke whales in the Southern Ocean and common minke, Bryde’s, sei, and sperm whales in the North Pacific. The 1946 convention requires countries to fully utilize whales once the scientific work has been completed and thus much of the whale meat can be found in restaurants and school lunchrooms.

VIII

Conclusion

Although no species of whale has become extinct in the last 400 years of commercial whaling, many stocks of some species have been reduced to extremely low levels. The most threatened is the Northern, or North Atlantic, right whale.

In its first 25 years IWC actions, while insufficient, were at least better than no action. From the 1970s the trend has been toward conservative catch limits based on scientific advice. As of 2003 the IWC had 49 member nations, the vast majority of which are nonwhaling nations. Opinions within the IWC range widely. Some nations consider whales a special group of animals that should not be killed under any circumstances. Other nations believe that whales should not be killed for commercial purposes because whale products are nonessential, although they accept aboriginal subsistence whaling. Still others hold the view that whales are a natural resource like any other that should be managed so that whale stocks are sustainable.

There is clearly a divergence of opinion within the IWC on such matters to an extent unparalleled in any similar organization. The lack of an international management regime could have potentially serious consequences for the world’s whale stocks and thus dialogue and a degree of compromise are required if the IWC is not going to fragment. The IWC Scientific Committee has stressed that while properly regulated hunting would not represent a threat to the survival of whale populations, other issues must be addressed. These include the by-catch of cetaceans in fishing gear and a number of habitat-related factors, including pollution and habitat degradation, which affect all species, including those for which catch limits would be set to zero given their low abundance.

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