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.