Whaling in Norway involves hunting of minke whales for use as animal and human food in Norway and for export to Japan. Whale hunting has been a part of Norwegian coastal culture for centuries, and commercial operations targeting the minke whale have occurred since the early 20th century.Norwegian whaling | Greenpeace International Some still continue the practice in the modern day, within annual quotas.
History Norwegians caught whales off the coast of Tromsø as early as the 9th or 10th century. Vikings from Norway also introduced whaling methods for driving small cetaceans, like pilot whales, into fjords in Iceland. The Norse sagas, and other ancient documents, provide few details on Norwegian whaling. The sagas recount some disputes between families over dead whales but do not describe any organized whale fishery in Norway.
Spear-drift whaling was practised in the North Atlantic as early as the 12th century. In open boats, hunters would strike a whale with a marked spear, with the intent of later locating the dead beached whale to claim a rightful share.
Svalbard From the early 17th century through the 18th century, Basque whalers hunted as far north as Svalbard and Bear Island, to include participation in Dutch and English whaling expeditions there. Competition between nations led to over-exploitation of whale stocks and multiple armed naval conflicts in the early 17th century. By the middle of the 17th century, other European nations also hunted whales in these lucrative waters.
The whales were primarily hunted to render oil from the blubber for production of soap, paint, varnish, oil for illumination, and more. The baleen, or whalebone, was also used in products like corsets and umbrellas. On arrival at Spitsbergen, the whalers would set anchor, then construct a shore station with materials from the ship. The whales were spotted from shore, then chased and lanced repeatedly from the bow of a shallop. The whale carcass was next towed back to the shore station where the blubber was removed and boiled down. Finally, the whale oil was stored in wooden casks which were loaded onto the anchored ship.
The Dutch used Jan Mayen Island as a base for whaling. They also established a semi-permanent shore station in the early 17th century on Amsterdam Island, Svalbard, which became the village of Smeerenburg. Norwegian ships were also sent to Svalbard during the 18th century.
Modern whaling
New techniques and technologies developed in the mid 19th century which revolutionized the whaling industry and Norway's prominence as a whaling nation.
In 1865, Thomas Welcome Roys and C. A. Lilliendahl, tested their experimental rocket harpoon design and set up a shore station in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland. A slump in oil prices after the American Civil War forced their endeavor into bankruptcy in 1867. A Norwegian, Svend Foyn, also studied the American method in Iceland.
Svend Foyn, who came to be considered the 'Father of modern whaling', was born in Tønsberg in 1809. After years of experiments and expeditions, he patented the modern whaling harpoon in 1870, the basic design of which is still in use today. He perceived the failings of other methods and solved these problems in his own system. He included, with the help of H.M.T. Esmark, a grenade tip that exploded inside the whale. This harpoon design also utilized a shaft that was connected to the head with a moveable joint. His original cannons were muzzle-loaded with special padding and also used a unique form of gunpowder. The cannons were later replaced with safer breech-loading types.
In 1864, Foyn took his first whaling ship to Finnmark but was unsuccessful and only caught a few whales. However, with the 1870 introduction of his improved harpoon design, and powered ships, larger rorquals could be chased and killed with new and deadly efficiency.
There were many others whose ideas predated Foyn's method. In 1867, a Danish fireworks manufacturer, Gaetano Amici, patented a cannon fired harpoon. An Englishman, George Welch, patented a grenade harpoon, also in 1867, very similar to Foyn's invention. In 1856, Phillip Rechten, of Bremen, Germany, together with the gunsmith Cordes, produced a double-barreled whale gun (and later claimed credit for Foyn's success) with a separate harpoon and bomb lance. Another Norwegian, Jacob Nicolai Walsøe experimented with an explosive tipped projectile design. A third Norwegian, Arent Christian Dahl, also experimented with explosive harpoons from 1857 to 1860.
From 1873 to 1883, Foyd enjoyed a whaling monopoly granted to him by the Norwegian government to protect him from German competitors. He moved his whaling operation from Tønsberg to Vadsø, and enjoyed great success in spite of frequent disputes between the whalers and the people of Vadsø, including fishermen who blamed the whalers for poor catches. He also established guano factories rather than letting the stripped whale carcasses go to waste. Attempts to market the meat for domestic consumption were unsuccessful.
Regardless of the monopoly, in 1876, some Norwegian citizens formed another whaling company and hunted whales from a site at the Varanger fjord where the Germans had initially established themselves. After a court dispute, Foyn made concessions to several other whaling companies, including the first modern whaling company in Sandefjord. When the monopoly ended, Norwegian competitors multiplied, the number of whaling stations and ships doubled, and whale stocks suffered dramatically due to unrestricted catching. Fin whales and blue whales were favored targets with 1,046 fin and 148 blue killed just from 1885 to 1886. Small boat whalers also hunted bottlenose whales in large numbers. By 1890, up to seventy vessels claimed about 3,000 of the 30 ft long whales annually.
Svend Foyn died in 1894 at the age of eighty-five.
Whaling ban In 1878, an extremely poor fishing season prompted renewed objections to whaling. A public scientific committee recommended a closed whaling season from January through May. In 1880, the Norwegian Parliament debated and adopted the proposal. A ban on whale catching, in the Varanger fjord, would take place from 1 Jan to 31 May for a period of five years starting in January 1881. Whaling grew in economic importance to Norway, but by 1883, poor fishing catches brought renewed calls for a total ban. The closed season was renewed for another 5 years, from 1886 through 1890.
Fishermen stepped up their pressure on the government after more dismal catches in 1886 and 1887, and an excellent catch in 1889 did not deter their opposition. Whaling companies used the 1889 success as an opportunity to condemn all restrictions on the industry, but the closed season was extended for another five years to 1896.
The conflict between whalers and fishermen had become a significant political issue by the 1900 election. Varanger fishing, where whaling was most intense, from 1901 to 1903, went even worse for the economic hardship of fishermen. As the disputes shifted into a class struggle, Russian competition and agitation shaped the official response. Politicians were also increasingly concerned about losing the votes of so many fishermen. Then, in June 1903, fishermen destroyed a whaling station of the Tanen Whaling Company in the "Menhaven Riots". A bill was passed before the end of the year banning all whaling in Norway's three northernmost counties for a period of 10 years, beginning February 1, 1904.
Iceland In 1883, whaling expanded from Norwegian waters to Iceland as unrestricted catching depleted whale stocks off the coast of Norway. Svend Foyn made several attempts to profit from whaling in Iceland but was ultimately unsuccessful. In reaction to demands that Norwegians working in Iceland should become naturalized Icelandic (and therefore Danish) subjects, Foyn sold his shares to company partners and abandoned his plans for whaling in Iceland. The major shareholder, Thomas Amlie of Oslo, assumed the role of expedition manager and enjoyed great success. As a result, competing companies transferred their operations to Iceland. In a violent storm in 1897, Amlie was lost at sea with one of his whaling ships and all 32 hands. He died at the age of 82. Amlie is considered the father of modern whaling in Iceland.
Between 1883 and 1915 ten (mostly Norwegian) whaling companies were founded and operated 14 shore stations on the east and west coasts of Iceland. One of the most successful companies, managed by Hans Ellefsen of Vestfold, in its best year produced ¼ of all of the whale oil in Iceland. He also used whale carcasses stripped of their blubber as raw material for a guano factory. However, in response to the decline of whale stocks, Ellefsen moved his operation to South Africa in 1911.Húsavík Whale Museum, Iceland: History of Whaling.
Faroe Islands In 1894, Hans Albert Grøn of Sandefjord established the first of seven whaling stations in the Faroe Islands at Gjánoyri, near Langasandur on Streymoy. There, his whaling company was able to take advantage of the migrating blue, fin, and sei whales that passed by the Faroes each year.
Unlike Iceland and northern Norway, where fishermen opposed the industry, the Faroese embraced whaling and enjoyed the new source of cheap whale meat. The Danish government insisted by law that whaling must be reserved for Danish citizens or companies in which Danes were significant shareholders. In 1901, Grøn established another station and a Danish-Norwegian company which operated from a base near Tórshavn.
Peder Bogen founded A/S Suderø, originally in Sandefjord, as another Danish-Norwegian venture in 1901. In 1908 he built a guano factory and used the product to endure seasons with poor yields or low whale oil prices. Competition continued to increase and as many as six shore stations operated from 1906 to 1911. After production peaked in 1909, Grøn left the Faroes in 1911 only to lose several ships at sea, including a floating factory. Grøn returned for successful 1914–15 seasons but was unable to make a significant catch in 1916. From 1917 to 1920, World War I interrupted whaling in the Norwegian Sea, and it was hoped that whale stocks had recovered in that time. Whale oil prices had dropped in 1920 along with the possibility of profitable whaling. Regardless, one Norwegian company continued to operate in the Faroes until the 1930s.
Shetland Islands In 1903, Peder Bogen of Sandefjord and Christian Nielsen of Larvik, brought their whaling companies to the Shetland Islands. At first, the whalers were welcomed by local herring fishermen whose nets were often damaged by whales. After the first season of whaling, and poor herring catches, the fishermen turned against the whalers. The fishermen believed the offal and blood from whale carcasses attracted sharks and frightened the herring. In 1904, an official committee was unable to determine any link between whaling and herring stocks. Although catches had suffered for years, fishermen insisted on blaming the whalers and protests led to many new restrictions. After the World War I stoppage, in 1920, renewed objections to whaling persuaded the Norwegian companies to leave.
Hebrides and Ireland In 1904, a Norwegian whaling company built the Bunaveneader station in Harris and caught North Atlantic right whales there for the next decade. After the World War I stoppage, whaling resumed there with a successful season in 1920. The success was short lived and the company was sold in 1922.