The Whaling Industry In America

Long ago, native tribes, from many places in the world, depended largely on whales for protein in their diets. They were also able to use much of the whale for oil, thus began a tradition of whaling. The first documented whaling expedition occurred in South Korea

The debate surrounding Makah whaling is a heated one to say the least. There are valid points on both sides of the argument, but there is one side I find to be more valid once the facts have been looked at. I will examine and present my findings regarding past and current laws and regulations related to whaling, types of whaling, other countries that take an active part in whaling (and why), as well as the Makah culture – both past and present. In this paper I will argue why the Makah should not be allowed to resume whaling, as it is unnecessary and could potentially put the grey whale species back on the endangered list.

Everyone loves going to marine parks such as SeaWorld and Marineland. They offer many spectacular shows with dolphins, sea lions and birds. However, the main attractions they offer are orcas, or as they are better known as killer whales. Highly intelligent and with acute senses of sight and hearing, they are apex predators. Recently, the possession of orcas has been a big topic of controversy. Many people believe that the animals are being mistreated in captivity. Their captivity limits their freedom and enjoyment. Many orcas suffer from poor physical and mental effects in captivity. Killer whales will usually travel between 50 and 100 miles per day in the wild, but in captivity all they can do is swim in circles or float for no reason. In the wild, killer whales live in pods of

The whaling industry was Hawaii’s main source of income during the early 1800s. Due to the Confederate retaliation and increase of sugar production, whaling was almost non-existent. The Hawaiian sugar exports rose from 722 tons in 1860, to 8,864.5 tons in 1866. This was in direct response to the American Civil War (Vance & Manning, 2012).

Whaling was very physical and economic business and the primary products were spermaceti, whale bones, sperm, and whale oil. The Native Americans used whaling for tribal purposes. The colonist in NEw ENgland hunted whales for baleen and oil. Whaling also gave them better burning candles. This is how the number of hales began to decrease as time went on.

Did you know that roughly three million whales were slaughtered in the twentieth century alone? Or that there are only around four hundred North Atlantic right whales alive today because they never fully recovered from being hunted? These whales are known as “right” whales because they are large and slow, with thick blubber that yields lots of oil plus they remain afloat after they've been killed, this simplifies the whole hunting process for everyone . Furthermore, the hunters got more money for less work. I believe that whaling is a vile and pointless thing to do to such beautiful creatures and that the International Whaling Commission should look further into the use of whales for research.

On the island of Nantucket, every infant is raised to become a sailor. Sailing is the pride of Nantucket, and sailors are very well respected. Non-sailors of Nantucket were typically outcast, and more than often were never married during their lifetimes. Nantucket viewed whaling as art and took it very seriously. Whaling, harvesting the resources of whales, was how this small town made its living. The Essex was part of a group of more than seventy whaling ships originating from the town of Nantucket. The role of whaling ships Because the price of whale oil was steadily increasing, there were very high expectations set for the Essex and the remaining ships of the fleet. The town of Nantucket was depending on the ships to be successful on their

I found many interesting topics while scrolling the through “The Debate Room.” These are a few that particularly interested me. First, I found an article about whaling Titles “Did We Save the Whales?” It stated that while whaling itself is dying out, the threats to whales and other marine creatures is still very real.

If the US were to exert financial and military influence in the Asia-Pacific, it needed to turn take advantage of the best opportunities possible. America sought to grow diversify its imports in order to bolster the domestic economy. California’s acquisition in 1848 and its reliance on horticulture, compelled the state to initiate contact with East Asia. Fruit trees, camellias, sugar and roses were all imported through trade in the Pacific. Whaling in the Pacific also presented itself has an economic opening to be tapped into. The population of whales in the Atlantic Ocean began to diminish and gave the New England Whalers a mandate to journey to the West Coast. Eventually this practice made its way to Hawaii in 1826 and became the most thriving industry within the Island State. Nonetheless whaling deteriorated towards the end of the nineteenth century was due to various factors. Eric Jones in his book Coming Full Circle: An Economic History of the Pacific Rim, attributed this to “the overexploitation of the whale population, the side effects of the U.S. Civil War, the destruction of thirty-three ships by pack ice in 1871, and the substitution of inorganic for organic oil.” Despite this fall, Whaling played a defining role in enlarging America’s economic involvement with the Pacific. The ‘Guano’ industry, being the accumulated excrements

In 1820 whaling and the exporting

Whales were peeled by vessels, conserved by the cold, and packed in barrels. 1719 Greenland whaling operation spread into Davis Strait. Davis Strait whaling operation was in the power of the Dutch and German until 1780. The Britain had to leave and service their industrial revolution. From the beginning of the 1690s the British had hunted down whales (have been fishing) in the Bay of North America colonies,also in Rhode Island, Long Island, Cape Cod. These were new centers of activity for (whaling) fishing. Then, during 1712 the Nantucket vessel capture the first sperm whale,these became a brand new center.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act was created in 1972, because of the growing concern from scientists and the general public about certain species of marine mammals becoming extinct, due to human activity. The primary objective of this act in 1972 was to maintain the health and stability of the marine ecosystem. When this objective was fulfilled the next focus would be to maintain the ideal population of each species. As you can tell from the graph below there has been a substantial decrease in the percent of maximum population in certain marine mammals.

In 1819, The whale ship, Essex, set its sails and departed from Nantucket, Massachusetts on a voyage to the Pacific Ocean to hunt and kill sperm whales and retrieve the abundance of oil the whales possess, which became a crucial component in 19th century industry [2]. The island of Nantucket had been one of the most important oil businesses for quite some time. For the crew of the whale ships, harvesting whales was a tough assignment; when a whale was spotted, the crew would approach it, harpoon it, and then try to kill it. Once a whale was killed, its blubber was peeled from the corpse and then boiled for the high quality oil. On this particular journey the crew faced even more difficulties than just the killing

Throughout the 19th century, the whaling industry was one of the largest sources of economic prosperity in the United States. Spermaceti oil was harvested from Sperm Whales used as an energy source for light and many more essential parts of people’s lives (“What Products…”). Whaling was an extremely dangerous and brutal practice that involved the inhumane capture and torture of essentially harmless creatures.

When final month of the whaling season in the year of 1897, captains of eight whaleships from San Francisco were fishing in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Alaska. They thought they had a few more weeks of good weather to continue whaling (hunting whales for needs) before heading south. Yet suddenly during the first week of September, the temperatures fell dramatically and soon, heavy ice was coming in from far out to sea. The ships were forced to lay anchor to wait for favorable winds to drive the ice away as it was stated when the whales got stuck in the wharsh weather. But when the warmer winds came, the ice didn’t melt, and the ships were trapped.