Topic: Whaling in the Arctic

Whaling in the Arctic has a history dating back thousands of years among indigenous cultures of the North Pacific that relied on whales for sustenance, tools, and other essential resources. These cultures hunted species such as bowhead, grey whale, and narwhal using hand-thrown harpoons and floats from small skin boats. Belugas were hunted in the lower reaches of the Mackenzie Delta where they were driven ashore and killed. Similar corral-style whaling was done by hunters of pot whales in the Faroe Islands. Basques in the Bay of Biscay in the 13^th century were the first Europeans to hunt large whales for oil with harpoons from dory-like chalupas. Basque skills were passed on to the Dutch who were the first to pioneer whaling in Arctic waters in Greenland and Spitzbergen.

Building upon Basque and Dutch whaling in the Northwest Atlantic, commercial whaling from New England ports, including Nantucket, New Bedford, Edgartown (Martha’s Vineyard), and Provincetown (Cape Cod) in Massachusetts, began to expand on a larger scale in the late 17th century, gradually developing from local ventures to longer voyages to hunt sperm whales in the open Atlantic. By the mid-18th century, as whale populations declined near New England, whalers sought hunting grounds for right and bowhead whales in Greenland and the Eastern Arctic. The industry proved highly profitable, as whale oil was a valuable commodity used for lighting, lubrication, and other purposes, and baleen began to be used for corset stays and umbrellas.

The whaling industry expanded significantly in the 19th century, with New Bedford, Massachusetts, becoming the whaling capital of the world. By the mid-to-late 19^th century, San Francisco, California became an integral whaling port much closer to new whaling grounds in the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans. Technological advancements, such as the use of harpoon guns, iron boats, and ship-board blubber processing, enhanced the efficiency of whaling operations and allowed for much longer voyages, including those to the Western Arctic near the Bering Strait. Sailing for months and thousands of miles to reach the area, whaleships came to Alaska and eastern Russia throughout the mid-to-late 19th century and became a booming industry that saw numerous ships from various countries hunting whales in the rich waters of the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans, including transit through the Bering Strait to the North Slope of Alaska. The primary targets of whalers in this region were bowhead and gray whales.

Whaling communities and stations were established along the coastlines of Alaska and eastern Russia to help process the whale carcasses and extract valuable resources such as blubber, oil, and baleen. These stations were often temporary and would move to different locations depending on the seasonal whale migration routes. As the 19th century progressed, the commercial whaling industry began suffering from overhunting and the depletion of whale populations. Whaling suffered a further setback when the CSS Shenandoah, a famous commerce raider of the Confederacy, sank whaling ships in the North Pacific and up through the Bering Strait in a voyage from 1864-65 to inflict a major blow on a key segment of the northern economy in the U.S. Civil War that was meant to cripple and weaken the Union. The implementation of regulations and restrictions in the 20th century reduced commercial whaling even more, as governments recognized the need to protect whale populations from extinction. Whaling is strictly regulated today, with hunting quotas set by international agreements for the handful of countries remaining in the industry and for subsistence whaling allowed for indigenous communities.