Hunting the Right Whale For centuries, right whales provided valuable materials to cultures around the globe. Baleen and blubber, the main resources once harvested from whales, now have substitutes that are consistently available, lower in cost, and do not require killing these majestic marine mammals. The Inuit, American Indians, and other indigenous people consumed whale meat long before Europeans began whaling. Whale meat provided an important source of protein in areas of the world with a limited number of land animals available as food, and in northern regions affected by a growing season too short to support a base of agriculture. The Inuit hunted whales in kayaks with stone harpoons. They harvested only a few whales each year and used every part of the animal for food, fuel, tools and even building materials. The small annual number of whales killed by Inuits (for more than 1000 years) had little impact on whale populations. European followed by New World whalers quickly devastated this balance. Terrestrial sources of meat were available to the Europeans and New World whalers. They were interested in the blubber and whale bone (baleen). Oil is produced from the meat and blubber, and is used in lamps and as a lubricant. Blubber contains over 60% oils, and once the process of hydrogenation was developed, whale oil was used in the manufacture of margarine, lard and shortening. One right whale could yield as much as 90 barrels of oil and 540 kilograms (1188 pounds) of baleen, which is also known as whalebone. Manufacturers fashioned the strong and highly flexible baleen into buggy whips, umbrella stays, skirt hoops, strapping for beds, brushes, and caning for chairs. The baleen from one whale would pay the expenses for the entire voyage. Everything else was clear profit. The Basques of northern Spain were hunting right whales in the Bay of Biscay by the 12th century. Spotters manned watchtowers along the shore and alerted waiting boats to nearby whales. Fishermen could immediately launch rowboats from shore to kill whales with hand-held harpoons. But as the whales became scarcer, the fishermen had to venture further from their home waters. By the 16th century, the whalers traveled as far as Newfoundland. In 1610, the English launched their first whaling enterprise to the northern coast of Norway. The voyage was profitable. The Dutch, French, Danish, Norwegian, German, and Portuguese also started whaling. Competition among the countries resulted in divisions of the coast. The Dutch had 300 ships and 18,000 men involved in whaling, more than any other country. As the number of boats increased, so did the number of northern right whales caught. By the 1700s, the English and French became the dominant forces in the Atlantic Ocean. Hunting these large animals required organized expeditions with skilled harpooners and expensive equipment. As the whale populations declined, the voyages moved further out to sea and into deeper waters. Government bounties spurred the establishment of an American whaling industry. Nantucket, Long Island, Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies profited from beached whales as early as 1644. Whaling boats began operating close to the New England shore in the late 1600s. Watchtowers were used to spot whales, and boats were launched from a shore base. Right whales were hunted in the early 1700s along the coast, towed to shore, and processed into oil and meat on the beaches. By the mid1700s, right whales close to shore were becoming scarce. As the right whale population dwindled, commercial whalers turned their attention to sperm whales. Sperm whales (Physeter catodon) were killed accidentally at first, but whalers soon found them profitable. To occupy their time during long whaling voyages and possibly supplement their incomes, the crew often made carvings on whale bone, particularly sperm whale jaws and teeth. These carvings are called scrimshaw. By the early 1800s, New England whalers were exploring the remotest corners of the oceans searching for whales. Many areas in New England were engaged in whaling, including New Bedford, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, Salem, Sag Harbor, Gloucester, Providence, and New Haven. Whaling was at its peak in New England from 1800-1860, and whaling profits made these seaports some of the wealthiest in America. The development of the toggle harpoon (the barbed harpoon head locked firmly into the whales flesh) in 1848 and the bomb lance (an exploding projectile fired from a gun) in 1865, would begin an era of efficiently killing an unprecedented number of whales. In 1876, a whaling vessel from New Bedford, Massachusetts, arrived in Brunswick, Georgia, to unload cargo of whale oil and baleen. While in the area, the schooner captured a whale off the coast, prompting other whalers to use Brunswick as their winter base of operation. Within six years, 25 to 30 whales were recorded to have been killed off the coasts of Georgia and northern Florida. By the time northern right whales were given protection in 1935, scientists estimated that there were fewer than 100 right whales left in the North Atlantic Ocean. Many feared that the northern right whale would become extinct.