this article discusses the history of whaling from prehistoric times up to the commencement of the international whaling commission 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 bangladesh site in korea unearthed by researchers from kyungpuk national university may date back to 6000 bce the university of alaska fairbanks has described evidence for whaling at least as early as circa 1000 bce 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 toward 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 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 dragged 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 inew inuit native americans and the basque people of the bay of biscay the bangladesh 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 raised the possibility that whales were hunted in the mediterranean sea by ancient rome whaling history by region north america new england beginning in the late colonial period the united states grew to become the preeminent whaling nation in the world by the 1830s american whaling's origins were in new york and new england including cape cod massachusetts and nearby cities whale oil was in demand chiefly for lamps by the 18th century whaling in nantucket had become a highly lucrative deep-sea industry with voyages extending for years at a time and traveling as far as south pacific waters during the american revolution the british navy targeted american whaling ships as legitimate prizes in turn many whalers fitted out as privateers against the british whaling recovered after the war ended in 1783 and the industry began to prosper using bases at nantucket and then new bedford whalers took greater economic risks in search of profit expanding their hunting grounds investment and financing arrangements allowed managers of whaling ventures to share their risks by selling some equity but retain a substantial portion of the profit as a result they had little incentive to plan their voyages to minimize risk ten thousand seamen manned the ships including more than three thousand african-american seamen early whaling efforts concentrated on right whales and humpbacks which were found near the american coast as these populations declined and the market for whale products grew american whalers began hunting sperm whales the sperm whale was particularly prized for spermacetta a dense waxy substance that burns with an exceedingly bright flame that is found in the spermacetta organ located forward and above the skull hunting sperm whales required longer whaling voyages whale oil was essential for illuminating homes and businesses in the 19th century and lubricated the machines of the industrial revolution baleen was used by manufacturers in the united states and europe to make varied consumer goods british competition and import duties drove new england whaling ships out of the north atlantic and into the southern oceans ultimately making wailing into a global economic enterprise the mid-19th century was the golden age of american whaling from the civil war when confederate raiders targeted american whalers through the early 20th century the american whaling industry suffered economic competition especially from kerosene a superior fuel for lighting localities a number of new england towns were heavily involved in whaling particularly nantucket and new bedford nantucket began whaling in 1690 after recruiting a whaling instructor ichabod paddock the south side of the island was divided into three and a half mile sections each with a mast erected to look for the spouts of right whales once a whale was sighted rowing boats were sent from the shore if the whale was successfully killed it was towed ashore flenched and the blubber boiled in cauldrons known as tripods even when whales were caught far offshore the blubber was still boiled on shore well into the 18th century new bedford whaling was established when prominent nantucket whaling families moved their operations to the town for economic reasons and made new bedford the fourth busiest port in the united states in hermann melville's novel moby dick the narrator begins his whaling voyage from new bedford in the late 1870s schooners began hunting humpbacks in the gulf of maine in 1880 with the decline of manhattan fish steamers began to switch to hunting fin and humpback whales using bomb lances this has been called shoot and salvage because of the high rate of loss due to whale sinking lines breaking etc the first such whale hunting ship was the steamer mabel bird which towed whale carcasses to an oil processing plant in boothbay harbour at its height in 1885 four or five steamers were engaged in whale fishery at boothbay harbour dwindling to one by the end of the decade over 100 whales were killed annually during some years the fishery ended in the late 1890s technological advancement in the 1850s the euro-american whalemen began a serious attempt at catching rorqual such as the blue whale and fin whale in the 1860s captain thomas welcome roys invented a rocket harpoon making a significant contribution to the development of the california whaling industry in 1877 john nelson fletcher a pyrotechnist and a former confederate soldier robert l suits modified roy's rocket marketing it as the california whaling rocket the rocket was highly effective in killing whales danish naval officer captain otto c hammer and the dutchman captain c j bottomon also imitated roy's rocket harpoon hammer formed the danish fishing company which operated from 1865 to 1871. batman formed the netherlands whaling company which operated from 1869 to 1872 legacy in 1996 the new bedford whaling national historic site was established offering exhibits on the history of the city that lit the world pacific northwest whaling on the pacific northwest coast encompassed both aboriginal and commercial whaling the indigenous peoples of this coast have wailing traditions dating back millennia a memoir by john r jawit an english blacksmith who spent three years as a captive of the new ucha nult people from 1802 to 1805 makes clear the importance of whale meat and oil to their diet whaling was integral to the cultures and economies of other indigenous people as well notably the macaw and clalum for other groups especially the haida whales appear prominently as totems hunting of cetaceans continues by alaska natives and to a lesser extent by the macaw commercial whaling in british columbia and southeast alaska ended in the late 1960s basque country the first mention of basque whaling was made in 1059 when it was said to have been practiced at the basque town of bayonne the fishery spread to what is now the spanish basque country in 1150 when king sancho the wise of navarre granted petitions for the warehousing of such commodities as whalebone at first they hunted the north atlantic right whale using watchtowers to look for their distinctive twin vapor spouts by the 14th century basque whalers were making seasonal trips to the english channel in southern ireland the fishery spread to turonova in the second quarter of the 16th century and to iceland by the early 17th century they established whaling stations in tehranova mainly in red bay and hunted bowheads as well as right whales the fishery in terranova declined for a variety of reasons including the conflicts between spain and other european powers during the late 16th and early 17th centuries attacks by hostile inuit declining whale populations and perhaps the opening up of the spitzbergen fishery in 1611. the first voyages to spitzbergen by the english dutch and danish relied on basque specialists with the basque provinces sending out their own whaler in 1612 the following season sansei bastian and saint jean de luz sent out a combined 11 or 12 whalers to the spitzbergen fishery but most were driven off by the dutch in english two more ships were sent by a merchant in san sebastian in 1615 but both were driven away by the dutch conflict over the spitzbergen whaling grounds between the english french dutch and danish continued until 1638. whale fishing in iceland and spitzbergen continued at least into the 18th century but basque whaling in those regions appears to have ended in 1756 at the beginning of the seven years war greenland and spitzbergen encouraged by reports of wales off the coast of spitzbergen norway in 1610 the english muscovy company sent a whaling expedition there the following year the expedition was a disaster with both ships sent being lost the crews returned to england in a ship from hull the following year two more ships were sent other countries followed suit with amsterdam and san sebastian each sending a ship north the latter ship returned to spain with a full cargo of oil such a fabulous return resulted in a fleet of whale ships being sent to spitzbergen in 1613. the muscovy company sent seven backed by a monopoly charter granted by king james the first they met with 20 other whale ships as well as a london interloper which were either ordered away or forced to pay a fine of some sort the united provinces france and spain all protested against this treatment but james the first held fast to his claim of sovereignty over spitzbergen the following three and a half decades witnessed numerous clashes between the various nations often merely posturing but sometimes resulting in bloodshed this jealousy stemmed as much from the mechanics of early whaling as from straightforward international animosities in the first years of the fishery england france the united provinces and later denmark norway shipped expert basque whalemen for their expeditions at the time basque whaling relied on the utilization of stations ashore where blubber could be processed into oil in order to allow a rapid transference of this technique to spitzbergen suitable anchorages had to be selected of which there were only a limited number in particular on the west coast of the island early in 1614 the dutch formed the nordsche company a cartel composed of several independent chambers the company sent 14 ships supported by three or four men of war this year while the english sent a fleet of 13 ships and pinises equally matched they agreed to split the coast between themselves to the exclusion of third parties the english received the four principal harbours in the middle of the west coast while the dutch could settle anywhere to the south or north the agreement explicitly stated that it was only meant to last for this season in 1615 the dutch arrived with a fleet of 11 ships and three men of war under adrian block occupied fairhaven bell sound and horn sound by force and built the first permanent structure on spitzbergen a wooden hut to store their equipment in the ten ships sent by the muscovy company were relegated to the south side of fairhaven sir thomas smith's bay and ice sound the danes meanwhile sent a fleet of five sail under gabriel cruz to demand a toll from the foreign whalers and in doing so assert christian iv's claim of sovereignty over the region but both the english and dutch rebuffed his efforts two ships from bordeaux chartered by a merchant in san sebastian were also sent away by the dutch the following year 1616 the english with a fleet of ten ships occupied all the major harbors appropriated the dutch hut and made a rich hall while the dutch preoccupied with january mayan only sent four ships to spitzbergen which kept together in odd places and made a poor voyage in 1617 a ship from blissing and whaling in hornsound had its cargo seized by the english vice admiral angry the following season the dutch sent nearly two dozen ships to spitzbergen five of the fleet attacked two english ships killing three men in the process and also burned down the english station in hornsound negotiations between the two nations followed in 1619 with james the first while still claiming sovereignty would not enforce it for the following three seasons when this concession expired the english twice tried to expel the dutch from spitzbergen failing both times in 1619 the dutch and danes who had sent their first whaling expedition to spitzbergen in 1617 firmly settled themselves on amsterdam island a small island on the northwestern tip of spitzbergen while the english did the same in the fjords to the south the danish dutch settlement came to be called smearenberg which would become the center of operations for the latter in the first decades of the fishery numerous place names attest to the various nation's presence including copenhagen bay and danes island where the danes established a station from 1631 to 1658 port louis or refuge francais where the french had a station from 1633-1638 until they were driven away by the danes and finally english bay as well as the number of features named by english whalemen and explorers for example isforton belsond and hornsend to name a few hostilities continued after 1619. in 1626 nine ships from hull and york destroyed the muscovy company's fort and station in belsound and sailed to their own in midter hakomna here they were found by the heavily armed flagship of the london whaling fleet a two-hour battle ensued resulting in defeat for the hull and york fleet and their expulsion from spitzbergen in 1630 both the ships of hull and great yarmouth who had recently joined the trade were driven away clean by the ships from london from 1631 to 1633 the danes french and dutch quarreled with each other resulting in the expulsion of the danes from smearenberg and the french from copenhagen bay in 1634 the dutch burned down one of the dane's huts there were also two battles this season one between the english and french and the other between london and yarmouth in 1637 and again in 1638 the danes drove the french out of port louis and seized their cargos in the former year they also seized a french ship in the open sea and detained it in copenhagen bay while in the latter year they also held two dutch ships captive in the same bay for over a month which led to protests from the dutch following the events of 1638 hostilities for the most part ceased with the exception of a few minor incidents in the 1640s between the french and danes as well as between copenhagen and hamburg and london and yarmouth respectively the species hunted was the bowhead whale a baleen whale that yielded large quantities of oil and baleen the whales entered the fjords in the spring following the breakup of the ice they were spotted by the whale men from suitable vantage points and pursued by shallops chalups or chalupas which were manned by six men the whale was harpooned and lanced to death and either towed to the stern of the ship or to the shore at low tide where men with long knives would flench the blubber the blubber was boiled in large copper kettles and cooled in large wooden vessels after which it was funneled into casks the stations at first only consisted of tents of sail and crude furnaces but were soon replaced by more permanent structures of wood and brick such as smearenberg for the dutch legend set for the english and copenhagen bay for the danes beginning in the 1630s for the dutch at least whaling expanded into the open sea gradually wailing in the open sea and along the ice floes to the west of spitzbergen replaced bay whaling at first the blubber was tried out at the end of the season at smearenberg or elsewhere along the coast but after mid-century the stations were abandoned entirely in favor of processing the blubber upon the return of the ship to port the english meanwhile stuck resolutely to bay whaling and didn't make the transfer to pelagic whaling until long after in 1719 the dutch began regular and intensive whaling in the davis strait between greenland and canada's baffin island the british south sea company financed 172 whaling voyages to greenland from london's howland dock between 1725 and 1732 beginning in 1733 the british government offered a bounty for whale oil leading to further expansion however due to reductions in the bounty and wars with america and france london's greenland fleet fell to 19 in 1796. during the 17th and 18th century north frisian islanders had a reputation of being very skilled mariners and most dutch and english whaling ships bound for greenland and svalbard would recruit their crew from these islands around the year 1700 four island had a total population of roughly 6000 of whom 1600 were whalers in 1762 25 of all shipmasters on dutch whaling vessels were people from four and the south sea companies commanding officers and harpooners were exclusively from four silt island and borkham island were also notable homes of whaling personnel the british would continue to send out whalers to the arctic fishery into the 20th century sending their last on the eve of the first world war japan the oldest written mention of wailing in japanese records is from kojiki the oldest japanese historical book which was written in the 7th century ce this book describes whale meat being eaten by emperor jima in manioshu an anthology of poems from the 8th century ce the word whaling was frequently used in depicting the ocean or beaches one of the first records of whaling using harpoons is from the 1570s at marosaki a bay attached to ais bay this method of whaling spread to kii shikoku northern kyushu and nagato kukumenwata later known as kokuman taiji was said to have invented net whalings sometime between 1675 and 1677. this method soon spread to shikoku and northern kyushu using the techniques developed by taiji the japanese mainly hunted four species of whale the north pacific right the humpback the finn and the grey whale they also caught the occasional blue sperm or sei bride's whale in 1853 the u.s naval officer matthew perry forced japan to open up to foreign trade one purpose of his mission was to gain access to ports for the american whaling fleet in the northwest pacific ocean japan's traditional whaling was eventually replaced in the late 19th century and early 20th century with modern methods britain britain's involvement in whaling extended from 1611 to the 1960s and had three phases the northern whale fishery lasted from 1611 to 1914 and involved whaling primarily off greenland and particularly the davis strait the southern whale fishery was active from 1775 to 1859 and involved whale hunting first in the south atlantic then in the indian and pacific oceans british law defined and differentiated the two trades finally modern british involvement in whaling extended from 1904 to 1963. each of these three trades involved different species of whales as targets northern whale fishery from 1753 to 1837 whalers from whitby were active in the davis strait in 1832 the phoenix was the only vessel to go out returning with a record 234 tons of oil the owners of the phoenix the chapmans therefore sent out two ships in 1833 the camden and the phoenix both vessels returned with large volumes of oil but the price of whale oil and whale bone had fallen after unsuccessful voyages in 1837 both ships were withdrawn from whaling ending whaling from whitby southern whale fishery the southern fishery was launched when samuel enderby along with alexander champion and john street barb using american vessels and crews sent out 12 whale ships in 1776. in 1786 the triumph was the first british whaler to be sent east of the cape of good hope and in 1788 the whaler emilia was sent west around cape horn into the pacific ocean to become the first ship of any nation to conduct whaling operations in the southern ocean emilia returned to london in 1790 with a cargo of 139 tons of whale oil the first sperm whale killed in the southern fishery was taken off the coast of chile on the 3rd of march 1789. in 1784 the british had 15 whale ships in the southern fishery all from london between 1793 and 1799 there was an average of 60 vessels in the trade increasing to 72 in 1800 to 1809 the first sperm whale off the coast of new south wales australia was taken by the ship britannia in october 1791. in 1819 the british whaler siren under frederick coffin of nantucket sailed to the coastal waters of japan she returned to london on the 21st of april 1822 with 346 tons of whale oil by 1825 the british had 24 vessels there the number of vessels being fitted out annually for the southern fishery declined from 68 in 1820 to 31 in 1824 in 1825 there were 90 ships in the southern fishery but by 1835 it had dwindled to 61 and by 1843 only nine vessels left for the southern fishery in 1859 the trade from london ended antarctic whaling the shore stations on the island of south georgia were at the center of the antarctic whaling industry from its beginnings in 1904 until the late 1920s when pelagic whaling increased the activity on the island remained substantial until around 1960 when norwegian british antarctic whaling came to an end france in 1786 william roche senior established a colony of nantucket whalemen in dunkirk by 1789 dunkirk had 14 whaling ships sailing to brazil walvis bay and other areas of the south atlantic to hunt sperm and right whales in 1790 roch sent the first french whalers into the pacific the majority of the french whaling ships were lost during the anglo-french war whaling began to revive after the war ended but when napoleon came to power rocha's holdings in dunkirk were seized after the napoleonic wars the government issued subsidies in an attempt to revive whaling and in 1832 this effort succeeded in 1835 the first french whaleship the gange reached the gulf of alaska and found abundant right whales in 1836 the first french whaler reached new zealand in 1851 the french government passed a law to encourage whaling but this was not successful whaling in france ended in 1868. iceland in 1883 the first whaling station was established in alpefurther iceland by a norwegian company between 1889 and 1903 nine more companies established themselves in iceland catching peaked in 1902 when 1 305 whales were caught to produce 40 000 barrels of oil whale hunting had largely declined by 1910. when only 170 whales were caught a ban on whaling was imposed by the allthing in 1915. in 1935 an icelandic company established a whaling station that shut down after only five seasons in 1948 another icelandic company h valuer h f purchased a naval base at the head of hvalfiore and converted it into a whaling station between 1948 and 1975 an average of 250 fin 65 say and 78 sperm whales were taken annually as well as a few blue and humpback whales unlike the majority of commercial whaling at the time this operation was based on the sale of frozen meat and meat meal rather than oil most of the meat was exported to england while the meal was sold locally as cattle feed scandinavia scandinavia's whaling industry invented many new techniques in the 19th century with most inventions occurring in norway jacob nikolai walso was probably the first person to suggest mounting a harpoon gun in the bows of a steamship while errant christian dahl experimented with an explosive harpoon in varanger fjord in 1863 sven foyne invented a harpoon with a flexible joint between the head and shaft and adapted wall so and dulce ideas initiating the modern whaling era later cannon-fired harpoons strong cables and steam winches were mounted on maneuverable steam-powered catcher boats they made possible the targeting of large and fast swimming whale species that were taken to shore base stations for processing breech loading cannons were introduced in 1925. pistons were introduced in 1947 to reduce recoil these highly efficient devices reduced whale populations to the point where large-scale commercial whaling became unsustainable finmark in february 1864 sven foyne began his first whale hunting trip to finmark in the schooner rigged steam-driven whale catcher spes at fides the ship had seven guns on her foxel each firing a harpoon and grenade separately several whales were seen but only four were captured after two unsuccessful trips in 1866 and 1867 he invented a harpoon gun that fired a grenade and harpoon at the same time and was able to catch 30 whales in 1868. he patented his grenade-tipped harpoon gun two years later foyne was given a virtual monopoly on the trade in finnmark in 1873 which lasted until 1882. despite this local citizens established a whaling company in 1876 and soon others defied his monopoly and formed companies unrestricted hunting began in 1883 triggering a large increase in the number of whale catchers at the peak in 1896 to 1898 between 1000 and 1 200 whales were caught each year the last station closed down in 1904. spitzbergen in 1903 the wooden steamship telegraph embarked on a whale-catching trip to spitzbergen she returned with 1960 barrels of oil produced from a catch of 57 whales of which 42 were blue whales by 1905 there were eight companies operating around spitsbergen and bear island and 559 whales were caught to produce 18660 barrels operations were suspended in 1912. faroe islands during the early 1900s the whaling stations in the faroe islands included janoiri on stramoy situated in the sound between the islands of stramoy and astoroi established in 1894 nordipill on borroi in the northern islands established in 1898 and closed down in 1920 lopra on the island of suroy established in 1901 and closed down in 1953. fundings for on astoroi established in 1901 v air whaling station established in 1905 and closed down in 1984. peak catching was reached in 1909 when 773 whales were caught to produce 13 850 barrels of oil in 1917 with the war and poor catches whaling was suspended the islander's main interest in whaling was cheap meat while 90 of the proceeds from the oil went abroad mostly to norway four norwegian companies resumed catching in 1920 but quickly stopped in 1933 the two remaining whaling stations in lopra and v air were taken over by faraway's owners from 1977 to 1984 the whaling station v air was owned and operated by the faraways government the buildings and the equipment of v air whaling station are still in existence the faroese ministry of culture recommended conservation in 2007 suggesting that the whaling station be made into a maritime museum with activities for the visitors 20th century by 1900 bowhead gray northern humpback and right whales were nearly extinct and whaling had declined it revived with the invention of harpoon shot from canons explosive tips and factory ships which allowed distant whaling whaling expanded in the northern hemisphere then in the southern hemisphere as each species was reduced to the point where it was hard to find whalers moved on to the next species catching blue whales fin whales sperm whales say whales and mink whales in sequence the league of nations held a conference on whaling in 1927 and in 1931 27 countries signed a convention for the regulation of whaling the convention was not enforceable and a record approximately 43 000 whales were caught in 1931. in 1932 whaling companies formed a cartel which cut harvests for two years but then failed a 1937 convention agreed to shorter seasons into sparing bowhead gray and right whales and whales under a minimum size ships killed faster to harvest as many as possible in the shorter season in 1946 15 whaling nations formed the international whaling commission with membership also open to non-whaling nations it prohibited killing gray humpback and right whales limited hunting seasons and set an antarctic limit of 16 000 blue whale units per year but again had no enforcement ability in 1949 to 1952 more than 2 000 humpbacks per year were harvested in the antarctic despite an annual quota of 1250 in 1959-1964 there were disagreements over a moratorium on blue whales and humpbacks with scientific advice eventually recommending a limit of 2800 blue whale units the iwc adopted quotas of 8 000. in 1970 the united states prohibited import of whale products by adding all commercial whales to its endangered species list proposals for 10-year moratoria were rejected in 1971 1972 and 1974 but species quotas were adopted and reduced consumer boycotts focused on japanese and russian products began in 1974 to protest the hunting of large whales by these countries in 1978 the iwc called for an end to international trade in whale products in 1982 the iwc adopted a ban on commercial whaling to start in 1986 japan norway and the ussr filed objections so the moratorium would not apply to them chile and peru also filed objections but peru later agreed to be covered and chile stopped wailing no international quotas were ever put on beluga wales and narwhals one thousand to two thousand of each have been killed each year to the present mostly in alaska canada and greenland catches by country and year sources iwc summary catch database version 6.1 july 2016 which includes great whales orcas bottlenose whales pilot whales and baird's beaked whales this database also has some pre-1900 counts not shown here the iwc database is supplemented by faraway's catches of pilot whales greenlands and canada's catches of narwhals belugas from multiple sources shown in the beluga whale article indonesia's catches of sperm whales vikach in japan 1980-2008 and bycatch in korea 1996-2017 the iwc database includes illegal whaling from ussr and korea this is supplemented by academic findings on korea from 1999-2003 note that most species of dolphins are omitted otherwise the main areas of missing data are bycatch in countries other than japan and korea narwhals before 1954. belugas in canada and usa before 1970 and in nunavut for all years belugas in ussr in bering east siberian and laptop seas and sea of okotsuk outside amur river area