[Dryerase] Alarm!--Whaling in the Pacific, Part II

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Whaling in the Pacific
PART II: The Brief Boom of Whaling 1850-1900
The Pacific Grey Whale

By Michelle Stewart
The Alarm! Newspaper Collective

The following is the second in a three-part series that investigates 
issues surrounding Pacific gray whale hunting. The first installment 
(last week) discussed the recent victory for the Makah Indians that 
allowed them to continue their renewed whaling in Washington State. This 
second installment will take a historical look at the gray whale 
industry and the last installment (September 20, 2002) will look at the 
Makah’s history as a whaling nation and their renewed hunt beginning in 
1998.

The Dawn of Whaling
It is impossible to say when whaling began—truly. Because for some the 
answer would be the Vikings of Norway, who employed a technique of 
herding pilot whales into fjords for slaughter. For others, the first 
whalers were the Makah, Nootka, Nuu-chah-nulth and other Indians of the 
Pacific Northwest who took to the straits, sounds and seas thousands of 
years ago in cedar dugout canoes to harvest whales as part of their 
marine diet and economy.
The important question is not who started whaling but rather what 
brought whales to the brink of extinction. Without a doubt it was 
industrialized whaling.
As early as the sixteenth century, the whale industry was present. In 
North America, the Basques set up one of the first whaling stations in 
Labrador in 1536. With an international demand for whale oil, whaling 
stations and vessels scoured the seas for the best whaling sites.
Whereas the various Indian tribes of the Northwest, Alaska, Arctic and 
other regions used most or all of the whale (meat, blubber and bones) 
for tools, trade and food, the whaling industry demanded only blubber 
and wasted the rest of the animal, with the exception of the baleen, 
which was used for items such as corsets or umbrella ribs.
By the nineteenth century, the interest in whale blubber for soap was 
diminishing, as many of the vessels—out to sea for months at a time—
would return only with rancid oil that would make for smelly soap. 
Although Britain was one of the biggest markets, interest was waning in 
the smelly soap. However, just as the whales seemed to have a chance for 
reprieve, a new use for their oil was discovered—lighting street lamps.  
When rendered correctly, the blubber could be transformed into an 
inexpensive oil. The whale industry was reignited as Europe was lit up.
With a demand for a product and many seas to find it in, whalers set out 
from such places as Australia, Japan, Europe and Americas. The 
insatiable appetite for whale products led to the depletion of many 
stocks, including the right, narwhal, pilot and sperm whales.
In the North Pacific (the Pacific Ocean of North America), many species 
were affected. However, in just fifty years, the last half of the 
nineteeth Century, the Pacific gray whale was brought to the brink of 
extinction.

Discovering the Breeding Grounds
Many of the whalers who first came to Magdelena Bay, Baja were 
unimpressed with its high population of gray whales. The whalers entered 
the Bay as a means to escape the harsh, winter conditions of the North 
Pacific—their target species were the oil-rich sperm and humpbacks. The 
crews of the whaling vessels United States and the Hibernia were the 
first to take advantage of the gray whale breeding grounds of the Bay.
Between 1845-46, vessels reportedly harvested only forty whales from the 
Bay. Since the grays were not generally a targeted species, their 
breeding grounds were left relatively unexploited in the coming years.
A decade would pass before Captain Scammon would enter the lagoon and 
make a pivotal decision. Unlike other vessels and captains, he decided 
to take advantage of the density of the whales. Where other vessels 
would leave the Bay after winter storms to seek out the oil-rich 
species, Scammon decided to try his luck with a new approach. Instead of 
hunting the sperm and humpback whales which take a lot longer to find, 
but give high yields for their quality oil, Scammon turned to the gray 
whale.
He decided to use the resources of the Bay and its lagoon system to fill 
his vessel each season with lesser quality goods, instead of taking 
years in hunt of a higher quality product. Although gray whale oil is 
not as clear when refined, there was plenty of it and the population 
density of the Bay made for easy pickings.
In 1855-56, Scammon took his vessel, the Lenore, into the Bay for his 
first season of gray whaling. That first season, Scammon didn’t realize 
that the Bay, and more specifically its maze of lagoons, was in fact a 
calving area for migrating whales. In the coming seasons, he would use 
his skills as a wildlife observer to become well acquainted with the 
ecology of the lagoon system. He then capitalized on a unique approach 
to hunting whereby he hunted in the shallows of the lagoons where 
females and calves sought refuge. One of his prime whaling grounds was 
Laguna Ojo de Liebre (also known as Scammon’s Lagoon)
The year after he discovered this lagoon’s potential, many vessels 
flocked to Magdelena Bay to try their luck at gray whaling; Scammon 
continued his investigation of the gray whales migration and discovered 
the San Ignacio Lagoon, and expanded his scope of exploitation.
It has been estimated by contemporary historians that the total eastern 
Pacific gray whale population at this time was approximately 
10,000–20,000. Factor into that rather small population the fact that 
the whalers of Magdelena Bay were targeting females and calves, and you 
might begin to see the biological consequence of this situation. 
However, in the ten years following Scammon’s discovery of the lagoon, 
the whalers were not so wise.
Whaling vessels would descend upon the breeding lagoons as the winter 
migration began and would position themselves throughout the lagoon 
system as the returning calves and females made their way into the 
lagoon. Some vessels would stay outside the lagoon and target incoming 
whales (or those attempting to exit) while others would take to the 
shallow interior (Scammon’s technique) and target the whales inside the 
lagoon complex. It has been estimated in those boom years for the whale 
industry, the population went from a peak of over 20,000 to less than a 
thousand whales.

The Technology of the Industry
The technology that assisted the military on its battlefields was being 
modified to accelerate the whale industry. While other whale fisheries 
employed traditional techniques and equipment, the Pacific gray whale 
fisheries used cutting-edge gear and methods to increase its yield each 
year. Hand-flung harpoons were replaced with swivel guns which could 
send out harpoons that remained attached to the whale until it was towed 
in. A major advance was the introduction of the bomb-lance, a 
shoulder-mounted weapon that allowed for better accuracy. The bomb-lance 
killed the whale immediately with an exploding projectile.  Both the 
lance and harpoon were employed in the Pacific gray whale fishery, with 
the lance eventually replacing the harpoon.

The Shore Fishery
In addition to changes in weapons, the nineteenth century whaling 
industry also initiated a commercial shore fishery.  The cost of 
outfitting a whaling vessel was considerable, so for some it was better 
to set up a shore fishery that relied on sighting a whale, taking to sea 
to capture it, and then hauling it to land for processing. In lieu of 
maintaining the vessel and a crew that could number up to fifty men, the 
shore-based industry used fewer men (approximately fifteen) who could 
support themselves off the land and take whales when they were seen from 
the shore. This shore-based industry was comprised largely of Portuguese 
immigrants who employed techniques they learned at home and later 
employed in Alta California. In total, records indicate that fifteen of 
these shore-based stations existed along the coastline between Oregon 
and Baja. Found in Crescent City, Humboldt Bay, Half Moon Bay, Bolinas 
Bay, Pigeon Point, Santa Cruz, Monterey Bay, Point Lobos, San Simeon, 
San Luis Obispo, Point Conception, Goleta, San Pedro and San Diego, 
these stations added to the overall effect on the gray whales’ 
population.
It is believed that these whaling stations took a total of 4,000 whales 
between 1855 and 1900 (The Monterey Bay station was one of the most 
successful, reporting a total of 655 landed whales). Between 1845-1874, 
an estimated 8,000 whales were taken by vessel. By the end of 1874, 
industrial whaling ceased in the Baja lagoons because there were no more 
whales to hunt; the shore-based industry survived the end of the century 
because it took such a small number and focused on other species. In 
less than fifty years, the Pacific gray whale population was decimated—
it was the end of the road for the whaling industry of the North 
Pacific. Sites were set on other seas, and other whales.
By the 1920s early discussions began about the need for international 
management of all whale species. At the same time, the Makah Indians, 
the only Indians in the lower forty-eight states with a treaty right to 
whale, halted their whaling practices. It was the end of an era (on an 
international scale).
In the coming decades, the International Whaling Commission would form 
(1940s) as a management group for the entire whaling industry. In the 
United States, political decisions would lead to a “Save the Whales” 
mentality (1970s). The drafting and passage of the Marine Mammal 
Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act (1973) found the United 
States labeled an anti-whaling nation. One of the first species listed 
on the Endangered Species List was the Pacific gray whale. The 
biological recovery of the gray whale would rely on conservation 
measures taken in the US and abroad; however, its recovery towards the 
end of the twentieth century would place the gray whale in a position to 
be hunted once again.
In just one hundred years, the gray whale went from a healthy 
population, to near destruction, to partial recovery and the possibility 
of renewed hunting. In the next and final installment of this series, I 
will look at the issues surrounding the Makah Indians and their treaty 
right to whale in Washington State.

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