History of whaling

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.

Humans have engaged in whaling since prehistoric times. Archaeological evidence acquired by the University of Alaska Fairbanks demonstrates whaling began at least 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, after which the animals are herded towards shore in an attempt to beach them. This was — and still is — used for smaller species such as pilot whales, beluga whales, porpoises and narwhals. This technique is described in A Pattern of Islands, a memoir published by British administrator Arthur Grimble in 1952.

The next step was to employ a drogue (a semi-floating object) such as a wooden drum or an inflated sealskin which was 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 fatigue, allowing it to be approached and killed. Several cultures around the world practiced whaling with drogues, including the Ainu, Inuit, other Native Americans, and the Basque people of the Bay of Biscay. The Bangudae petroglyphs, an archaeological site in South Korea, suggests that drogues, harpoons and lines were being used to kill small whales as early as 6000 BC. Petroglyphs unearthed by researchers from Kyungpook National University show sperm whales, humpback whales and North Pacific right whales surrounded by boats. Similarly-aged cetacean bones were also found in the area, reflecting the importance of whales in the prehistoric diet of coastal people.

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