Whaling in the United States

The origins of whaling in the United States of America date to the 17th century in New England and peaked in 1846-52. New Bedford, Massachusetts, sent out its last whaler, the John R. Mantra, in 1927.

The US continues whaling using the International Whaling Commission (IWC) exception for Aboriginal whaling. Catches have increased from 18 whales in 1985 to over 70 whales in 2010.

The latest IWC whaling quota allows for a total of up to 336 bowhead whales to be killed in the period 2013 - 2018.

The towns of Long Island are believed to have been the first to establish a whale fishery on the shores of New England sometime around 1650. Nantucket joined in on the trade in 1690 when they sent for one Ichabod Padduck to instruct them in the methods of whaling. The south side of the island was divided into three and a half mile sections, each one with a mast erected to look for the spouts of right whales. Each section had a temporary hut for the five men assigned to that area, with a sixth man standing watch at the mast. Once a whale was sighted, whale boats were rowed from the shore, and if the whale was successfully harpooned and lanced to death, it was towed ashore, flensed (that is, its blubber was cut off), and the blubber boiled in cauldrons known as "trypots." Well into the 18th century, even when Nantucket sent out sailing vessels to fish for whales offshore, the whalers would still come to the shore to boil the blubber.

In 1715 Nantucket had six sloops engaged in whale fishery, and by 1730 it had twenty-five vessels of 38 to 50 tons involved in the trade. Each vessel employed twelve to thirteen men, half of them being Native Americans. At times the entire crew, with the exception of the captain, might be natives. They had two whaleboats, one held in reserve should the other be damaged by a whale.

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