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Whaling, Modern Clapham, P.J. and B aker, C.S. 2002. M odern whaling. In: Perrin, W.F., W ürsig, B. & T hewissen, J.G .M. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Marine Mamm als, pp. 1328-1332. Academic Press, New York. Whaling, Modern Phillip J. Clapham1 and C. Scott Baker2 1Large Whale Biology Program Northeast Fisheries Science Center 166 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA 2School of Biological Sciences Auckland University Auckland, New Zealand “There is no means known to catch the fin subduing and fastening to it with hand-thrown whale, or its fast cousins.” harpoons. If this dangerous series of actions succeeded, the whale might ultimately be o wrote Herman Melville in the year despatched with a lance thrust deep into some 1851, thus echoing the common lament vital organ. Once killed, the carcass would be Sof whalers that the fastest (and some of either towed to shore, or brought alongside the the largest) species of whales, such as the whaling vessel for the time-consuming finback and the blue, lay beyond process of butchering. contemporary means of capture. These methods had been in use in the 11th At the time that Melville wrote Moby century when the Basques began the first Dick, the basic technology of whaling had sustained commercial whale fishery, on right remained essentially unchanged for centuries. whales in the Bay of Biscay. Although many Whaling ships plied their trade under sail, and improvements had been made, the technology the small boats that they lowered to pursue available to whalers in the middle of the 19th whales were also powered by wind, or by the century severely limited the number of brute strength of their crew’s arms at the oars. animals that could be taken and processed in The killing of whales required men to bring a working day. Furthermore, as Melville their frail craft alongside the huge quarry, noted it largely precluded exploitation of the faster species. Blue, fin, sei and Bryde’s whale in the North Atlantic, this was the result whales, all large and desirable targets, were of exploitation spread over centuries. With too swift to allow pursuit by oars or sails. some other stocks, decimation had been Thus it was the slower species such as the accomplished in a remarkably short time: the humpback, the right and the sperm whale first North Pacific right whale was not killed which had borne the brunt of commercial until 1835, yet fourteen years later the whaling, and they had done so in some cases population had already been reduced to the for almost a thousand years. point where many whalers switched their focus to the newly established fishery for By 1860, however, all of this was about to bowhead whales in the western Arctic. change. Two men, the Norwegian Svend Another quickly depleted stock was that of the Føyn and an American named Thomas eastern North Pacific gray whale, made Welcome Roys, were independently vulnerable by its predictable coastal migration experimenting with explosive harpoons. As and tendency to concentrate for breeding and patented by Roys in 1861, this device was calving in the lagoons of Baja California. initially fired from a shoulder gun; Føyn developed a different approach using a bow- The new technology opened up all species mounted cannon, which was to become the to whaling, and did so at a time when the industry standard. The “bomb lance” was an industry, spurred on by steam power, was also innovation that was to revolutionize the expanding geographically. By far the most whaling industry by providing a much more significant development in this regard was the efficient means to despatch whales, both discovery of the vast stocks of whales in the quickly and from a distance. Southern Ocean. In 1904, the Norwegian whaler C.F. Larsen arrived at the South About the same time, the use of sail was Atlantic island of South Georgia and reported beginning to give way to steam. This was a with astonishment, “I see them in hundreds key innovation: together with the explosive and thousands”. Huge pristine populations of harpoon, it radically changed the industry, and rorquals - notably blues, fin whales and finally allowed the pursuit and capture of any humpbacks - filled the surrounding waters whale. Suddenly, even the fastest rorquals together with southern right whales and other came under the gun as they were chased down species. Modern whaling had found its by fast motorized catcher boats. greatest playground, and a slaughter A further innovation, the compressor, unparalleled in whaling history was about to solved a long-standing problem with regard to begin. the many species which did not float when Whaling at South Georgia was initially dead: by pumping air into the carcass constrained by the need to use land stations immediately after death, whalers could secure for processing of the carcasses. Because of it before it sank, thus greatly reducing the loss this, spoilage limited the range of the catcher rate. boats; it also left the whaling companies For the industry, this transition into the vulnerable to high taxes levied by the British mechanized age could not have come at a authorities. Despite these difficulties, the more opportune time. By 1900, many industry accomplished the destruction of local populations of the traditionally hunted species stocks of whales with remarkable efficiency. were commercially exhausted. In some cases, At the height of operations, hundreds of such as the bowhead and the northern right humpback, fin and blue were taken in a single month. By 1915 the South Georgia some kind of regulation was required. In population of humpbacks had essentially been 1931, the Convention for the Regulation of extirpated, with a total catch of some 18,557 Whaling was held, and adopted worldwide whales; while occasional catches were made protection for right whales, an action which in later years (the largest being one of 238 came into effect in 1935. The Second humpbacks in 1945/46), the stock had Convention for the Regulation of Whaling essentially been rendered commercially was held in 1937, and provided protection for extinct by the time of the Great War. Blue the much-depleted gray whale. However, whales suffered a similar fate; 39,296 were neither convention went far enough; among killed at South Georgia between 1904 and other things, since neither Japan nor the Soviet 1936, at which point the population had Union ratified these agreements, both were crashed, irretrievably. theoretically free to continue killing the only two species that had been granted protection. The problem of dependence upon land stations was solved, at a stroke, with the In 1946, following the virtual cessation of introduction of the factory ship. The British whaling that occurred during World War II, vessel Lansing was the first such floating the International Convention for the factory and began operations in Antarctic Regulation of Whaling was developed and waters in 1925. It is difficult to overestimate signed by all major whaling nations (including the importance of this innovation to whaling, Japan and the USSR). Among other things, or its contribution to the destruction of whale this landmark convention created the populations in the Antarctic. Factory ships International Whaling Commission (IWC), could operate independently far out to sea for established to regulate whaling and to oversee months at a time. They maintained round-the- research on whale stocks. The latter task had clock processing operations, their huge as its principal objective learning enough flensing decks kept constantly supplied by an about the abundance, population structure and attendant fleet of catcher boats. Whale life history of the great whales to permit the carcasses were hauled up the large stern ramp IWC to set quotas that would allow the and dismembered with astonishing mechanical highest viable level of exploitation, a concept efficiency: an adult fin whale of 70 or 80 feet widely known as Maximum Sustainable Yield and 100 tons could be rendered from whole (MSY). animal down to bone in half an hour. With Unfortunately, the IWC’s quota system the factory ship, all of Antarctic waters was immediately handicapped by an earlier became open to whalers, their operations development. In 1932, the whaling nations limited only by the constant dangers of had developed the “Blue Whale Unit” (bwu). weather and ice. A single bwu was equivalent to one blue Over the six decades following the whale, two fin whales, two and a half opening of the Antarctic grounds in 1904, the humpbacks or six sei whales. As such, quotas whaling industry killed approximately two set in bwu, by permitting whalers to make million whales in the southern hemisphere their own decisions about which whales to (Table 1). This included 360,000 blue whales, take, made no allowance for the conservation some 200,000 humpbacks, almost 400,000 status of a particular species, let alone that of sperm whales and a staggering three quarters a specific population. It was not until 1949 of a million fin whales. By the 1930's, it was that a species-specific quota (for humpbacks) apparent even to the whaling nations that was established. The bwu remained in effect until 1972, than 48,000. In the northern hemisphere, despite recommendations from IWC scientists Soviet activities were on a smaller scale, but as early as 1963 that it be abolished (also in were nonetheless extremely damaging in some 1963, the same scientists recommended a halt cases. The virtual disappearance of right to all humpback and blue whaling; the IWC whales in the eastern North Pacific in the responded by setting a quota of 10,000 bwu). 1960's was recently explained by revelations In some years, the IWC could not agree on a of Soviet catches of 372 whales from this bwu quota, and whaling nations were left to already-small stock between 1963 and 1967.
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