What The Whale
By Isaac Rath and Katie Milesky
Photos by Isaac Rath
When you hear the term “whaling”, it’s likely that you’ll think of the reality series, “Whale Wars,” which premiered in 2008 on Animal Planet. The show followed the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a group of anti-whaling activists, on their mission to interfere with Japanese whaling expeditions. While in Japan, these activists may be considered terrorists, the majority of the world has actually had a drastic decrease in the use of whaling practices over the past half-century. Commercial whaling was banned in 1986, and today most countries of the world are part of the IWC, or International Whaling Commission. In fact, there are only a few countries left that still participate in whaling at this time- Japan, Norway, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Greenland, and The United States (specifically, Inuit tribes in Northern Alaska). In the latter four countries, whaling is done much more sustainably than in the past. Small boats go out, take only a certain number of whales, and only do so at certain times of the year. In contrast, Japan sends multiple factory ships down to the southern ocean to harvest whales. These ships are equipped with everything they need to kill, disassemble, and package whale meat for the market. During the Second World War, whale meat was a staple in the country, but in more recent years, the demand for whale meat has been decreasing steadily.
In the early 20th century, the southern ocean was a hot spot for hunting, killing, and harvesting seals and whales. A wide variety of seals were killed for their skin, which could be turned into leather and used to make hats, gloves, clothing, and shoes among other things. The seal hunts only lasted so long, as they adapted and learned that there was a higher profit margin in hunting bigger game, such as whales, instead. Whales were primarily hunted for the oil they stored in their blubber, but they’d also use the whale’s bone to create things that we would today make from plastic, such as combs, pipes, children’s toys, buttons, chess pieces, etc.
The most commonly attacked species were Right Whales. These whales are naturally curious and would come right up to the boat to check it out. Unfortunately, this made them an easy target for the hunters. They even got their name from the whalers, because they often said these “were the right whales to hunt.” There are three species of Right Whale - North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Southern. They are generally somewhere between 43 and 56 feet long and can weigh up to around 100 short tons. More often than not, whalers would target females with calves. If they are able to harpoon and injure the smaller, weaker calf first, then the mother will stick by its side, making it much easier to get her as well. This brutality can wreak havoc on populations, and with little to no regulations on the amounts of whales and seals being removed from the ocean between the years of 1904 and 1986, that is exactly what happened in the southern ocean. Over time, the industry became more industrialized, and by the 1960s, ships were able to take multiple whales on each outing. By the end of the 1970s, nearly 750,000 of the world’s fin whales had been butchered for their oil and bones. While we traveled through the southern ocean last month, we had the opportunity to see dozens of whales, including Southern Right Whales. Our ship was rather large, so they didn’t come too terribly close, which is probably for the best. Unfortunately, that means I don’t have many photos of whales to share with you. Thank you for reading!
