This article discusses the history of whaling from prehistoric times up to the commencement of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. Whaling has been an important subsistence and economic activity in multiple regions throughout human history. Commercial whaling dramatically reduced in importance during the 19th century due to the development of alternatives to whale oil for lighting, and the collapse in whale populations. Nevertheless, some nations continue to hunt whales even today.
Early history
Humans have engaged in whaling since prehistoric times. Early depictions of whaling at the Neolithic Bangudae site in Korea, inscribed on the World Heritage list, may date back to 6000 BCE. The University of Alaska Fairbanks has described evidence for whaling at least as early as circa 1000 BCE. According to archaeological evidence from a 2026 study, the earliest form of whaling targeting baleen whales dates back at least 5000 years ago (3000 BC) and was estimated to have been practiced by indigenous peoples in southern Brazil. The oldest known method of catching cetaceans is dolphin drive hunting, in which a number of small boats are positioned between the animal and the open sea and the animals are herded towards shore in an attempt to beach them. This method is still used for smaller species such as pilot whales, beluga whales, porpoises and narwhals, as described in A Pattern of Islands, a memoir published by British administrator Arthur Grimble in 1952. Another early method used a drogue (a semi-floating object) such as a wooden drum or an inflated sealskin tied to an arrow or a harpoon. Once the missile had been shot into a whale's body, the buoyancy and drag from the drogue would eventually cause the whale to tire, allowing it to be approached and killed. Cultures that practiced whaling with drogues included the Ainu, Inuit, Native Americans, and the Basque people of the Bay of Biscay. The Bangudae petroglyphs show sperm whales, humpback whales and North Pacific right whales surrounded by boats, and suggest that drogues, harpoons and lines were being used to kill small whales as early as 6000 BCE. Cetacean bones of the same period were also found in the area, reflecting the importance of whales in the diet of prehistoric coastal people. Whale bones recovered near the Strait of Gibraltar raise the possibility that whales were hunted in the Mediterranean Sea by ancient Rome.
Whaling history by region
North America
Newfoundland and Labrador
Around 1525 Basques began whaling and fishing for cod off Newfoundland, Labrador, and similar places. In his History of Brittany (1582), the French jurist and historian Bertrand d'Argentré made the claim that the Basques, Bretons, and Normans were the first to reach the New World "before any other people". The Bordeaux jurist Etienne de Cleirac (1647) made a similar claim, stating that the French Basques, in pursuing whales across the North Atlantic, discovered North America a century before Columbus. The Belgian cetologist Pierre-Joseph van Beneden (1878, 1892) repeated such assertions by saying that the Basques, in the year 1372, found the number of whales to increase on approach of the Newfoundland Banks. The first undisputed presence of Basque whaling expeditions in the New World was in the second quarter of the 16th century. It appears to have been the French Basques, following the lead of Breton cod-fishermen that reported finding rich whaling grounds in Terranova (Newfoundland). The Basques called the area they frequented Grandbaya (Grand Bay), today known as the Strait of Belle Isle, which separates Newfoundland from southern Labrador. Their initial voyages to this area were mixed cod and whaling ventures. Instead of returning home with whale oil, they brought back whale meat in brine. The French Basque ship La Catherine d'Urtubie made the first known voyage involving whale products in 1530, when she supposedly returned with 4,500 dried and cured cod, as well as twelve barrels of whale meat "without flippers or tail" (a phrase for whale meat in brine). After a period of development, expeditions were sent purely aimed at obtaining whale oil. The first establishments for processing whale oil in southern Labrador may have been built in the late 1530s, although it wasn't until 1548 that notarial documents confirm this. By the 1540s, when the Spanish Basques began sending whaling expeditions to Newfoundland, the ventures were no longer experimental, but a "resounding financial success from their inception." By the end of the decade they were delivering large cargoes of whale oil to Bristol, London, and Flanders. A large market existed for "lumera", as whale oil used for lighting was called. "Sain" or "grasa de ballena" was also used (by mixing it with tar and oakum) for caulking ships, as well as in the textile industry. Ambroise Paré (1510–90), who visited Bayonne when King Charles IX (r. 1560–74) was there in 1564, said they used the baleen to "make farthingales, stays for women, knife-handles, and many other things". Most documents dealing with whaling in Newfoundland concern the years 1548 to 1588, with the largest quantity dealing with the harbor of Red Bay or "Less Buttes"—both names in reference to the red granite cliffs of the region. The references include acts of piracy in the 1550s, the loss of a ship in 1565, a disastrous wintering in 1576–77, and, on Christmas Eve 1584, a will written for a dying Basque, Joanes de Echaniz; the first known Canadian will. The last overwintering in Red Bay was made in 1603. During their onshore stays, the whalers developed relations with North American natives that led to the establishment of a purpose-specific language with both American native and Basque elements.
United States of America
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
