Overexploitation Flashcards
Describe when whaling was first documented
The voyages of Alexander the Great. Many societies historically used the bodies of stranded whales
Describe aboriginal subsistence whaling
Many coastal aboriginal societies have traditionally harvested whales and dolphins for subsistence, for example Pacific Islanders, Alaskan Inuit peoples and Norse whalers.
Aboriginal whaling does not seek to maximise catches or profit.
Four countries conduct aboriginal subsistence hunts today: Denmark (Greenland), Russia (Chukotka), St Vincent and the Grenadines (Bequia) and the United States (Alaska).
Describe Basque whalers
The first to systematically hunt large whales were from the Basque country, Northern Spain, beginning 1000 A.D.
Initially coastal whaling, then on expeditions to exploit large whales overseas – Arctic, Canada, United States and further.
By 1200 A.D. the industry was fully developed.
Species were rarely recorded, North Atlantic right whales and possibly gray whales (now extinct)
What are the uses of the resources from Basque whaling
Oil – lighting, soap, wool, leather, and paint,
Meat – fed to the poor and ships’ crews,
Baleen – numerous applications (including being shredded into plumes for the decoration of knight’s helmets),
Bones – vertebrae, seats, ribs fence-pickets, beams for housing.
Tongue – particular delicacy, reserved for the clergy and royalty.
What species do American Whaleman focus on?
Sperm whale, bowhead, humpback, gray, southern right, north atlantic right, north pacific right
Describe right whale fisheries
Known as the ‘right’ whale because they were the right whale to fish.
Slow swimmers that were caught in the coastal breeding grounds. Long-lived, low fecundity and rapidly depleted.
Describe sperm whale fisheries
Primary product was spermaceti oil from the head, superior candles.
Catcher-boats were long rowing canoes and the whales were harpooned and oil and blubber rendered in on-board try-works.
Describe Scrimshaw and Azorean whaling
Life aboard the whaler ships was hard, men were away from home for sometimes years, with only a share of the profits and no wages.
Scrimshaw art – good use of time.
Azores, rich sperm whale grounds, local whaling and frequented by many international whalers.
Describe bowhead whale fisheries
Bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) were prized for the longest baleen plates.
Populations in the far northern Arctic, that were sustainably fished by indigenous peoples, were systematically taken as whalers discovered open passages in summer.
Grounds included the Sea of Okhotsk, Bering Sea, Chukchi and eastern Beaufort Seas.
Bowhead whales are extremely long-lived (~ 200 years) and populations were decimated rapidly.
Describe the emergence of modern whaling
Technology and killing methods had previously limited the number of whales that could be taken and processed.
In 1861,Svend Føyn invented the exploding ‘bomb lance’, and the steam-powered whale catcher boat – the new industry standard.
Catcher boats were fast, keeping up with large fast species, killing them with the harpoon and injecting them with air to stop them from sinking.
All species could be hunted, in every corner of the world – blue, fin, sei and humpbacks were targeted especially in remote areas of the Southern Ocean.
From the late 1800s large fleets of steam-powered catcher boats operated throughout the oceans, alongside factory processing ships and large shore-stations, for example, Leith Harbour, South Georgia.
Describe how the oceans have been emptied
By the early 1900s, one modern factory ship could take more whales in one season and the entire American fleet of 1847.
Between 1900-1999, more than 2.9 million whales were killed globally, with fin and sperm whales making up more than half (56.5%) of the catch. > 2 million whales from Southern Hemisphere.
The whalers did not discriminate – all species, all ages were taken.
By the 1920s, some nations thought there was a need to regulate whaling and manage stocks:
Norwegian Whaling Act (1929)
Convention for the Regulation of Whaling at the Geneva Convention (1935)
International Agreement for the Regulation of Whaling (1937) and then finally,
International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling and the governing body for this Convention, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) (1946).
Describe the International Whaling Commission
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is the global intergovernmental body charged with the conservation of whales and the management of whaling.
Whaling persisted well into the 1970s and 80s but catches declined and fleets targeted smaller species, for example minke whales (Balaenoptera bonaerensis).
Japan and USSR continued to meet their quotas.
Describe 1985 moratorium and ‘scientific whaling’
1970s more protective attitudes were developing,
1985-86, a moratorium (effectively a zero catch limit) was agreed by all nations, with the exception of Japan, Norway and the USSR (who objected).
Japan continued to whale by exploiting Article VIII of the Convention, permits member states to issue permits to kill whales for scientific research – ‘scientific whaling’. In 2018, Japan announced its decision to withdraw from the IWC.
Other permits for scientific whaling (1986–1994) for Iceland, the Republic of Korea and Norway.
Norway resumed commercial whaling in 1993.
Iceland resumed commercial whaling in 2006 (under the objection provision).
Describe illegal whaling
Many nations did not accurately report the whales they caught, either by numbers or by species.
For example, by 1973, Soviet fleet had killed at least 200,000 whales more than they had officially reported.
These whales were killed in areas of the seas not reported and were species that were supposedly protected – blues, Bryde’s and humpbacks.
Example – in two Antarctic seasons, two Soviet ships killed a staggering 25,000 humpback whales in the waters south of Australia and New Zealand.
How many whales are left?
Antarctic blue whales - 97% reduction in population
Grey whale: North Atlantic (Extinct)
Eastern Pacific (~20,000 whales)
Western Pacific (~100 whales)
Sperm wales are listed as Vulnerable
