Sperm whaling
Sperm whaling is the
Sperm whales are prized for the
Economic motivation
Sperm whales were hunted in the 19th century by American, British and other national whaling fleets. As with all the species targeted, the thick layer of fat (
Each whale's head held up to a ton, in a cavity called the "case". It was part of a waxy liquid called spermaceti, from which the whale got its common name. The liquid was removed from the spermaceti organ at sea, and stored separately from the rendered whale oil for processing back in port. On return home, this headmatter, which was worth around 20% more than the oil from the blubber, was divided into two valuable commodities. One was a very pure type of sperm whale oil that required little or no additional processing. It was found particularly suitable as a lubricant for fine machinery, such as pocket watches. What remained after the oil was extracted was a waxy substance that could be made into spermaceti candles. These burned longer and brighter than tallow candles and left no smell and, as a result, sold at a higher price.[1] Although spermaceti by-products were high-value, they made up only a small proportion, perhaps 10%, of the substances extracted from sperm whales.
These much sought after commodities had a variety of commercial applications.
Two other products of the sperm whale are of economic importance.
History
Historically, whaling took a heavy toll on sperm whale populations. Prior to the early 18th century, sperm whales were hunted in Japan and Indonesia. Legend has it that sometime in the early 18th century, supposed to be not far from 1712, Captain Christopher Hussey, while cruising for right whales near shore, was blown offshore by a northerly wind, where he encountered a school of sperm whales and killed one. It is not clear whether this story is apocryphal, since no Christopher Hussey would have been the proper age in 1712. However, another member of the Hussey family, possibly Bachelor (Bachelder) or Sylvanus Hussey, may have been the actual person referred to in the story.[7] Although the story may not be true, sperm whales were indeed soon exploited by American whalemen, as Judge Paul Dudley, in his Essay upon the Natural History of Whales (1725), states that one Atkins, ten or twelve years in the trade, was among the first to catch sperm whales sometime around 1720.[8]
Early 18th century
Only a few sperm whales were recorded to have been caught during the first few decades (1709–1730s) of offshore whaling, as sloops concentrated on Nantucket Shoals where they would have taken right whales or were sent to the Davis Strait region to catch bowhead whales. By the early 1740s, with the advent of spermaceti candles (before 1743), American vessels appear to have begun to take sperm whales in earnest. The diary of Benjamin Bangs (1721–1769) shows that, along with the bumpkin sloop he was in, he found three other sloops with sperm whales being flensed alongside off the coast of North Carolina in late May 1743.[9] On returning to Nantucket in the summer 1744 on a subsequent sperm whaling voyage he noted that "45 spermacetes are brought in here this day," another indication that American sperm whaling was in full swing.[9]
Late 18th century
American sperm whaling soon spread from the east coast of the American colonies to the
19th century
Sperm whaling in the 18th century began with small sloops carrying only a pair of whaleboats (sometimes only one). As the scope and size of the fleet increased so did the rig of the vessels change, as brigs, schooners, and finally ships and barks were introduced. In the 19th century stubby, square-rigged ships (and later barks) dominated the fleet, being sent to the Pacific (the first being the British whaleship Emilia, in 1788),[11] the Indian Ocean (1780s), and as far away as the Japan grounds (1820; Syren) and the coast of Arabia (1820s), as well as Australia (1790s) and New Zealand (1790s).[14][15]
Sperm whaling involved the above-named ships searching for sperm whales on certain "grounds," or areas where sperm whales were likely to be found, such as the "Western" Ground in the mid-North Atlantic or the "Offshore" Ground in the latitudes of 5–10 degrees south and 105–125 degrees west longitude. The whales were spotted from one of the several look-outs stationed at the mast-heads. When a whale was found, whaleboats would be lowered and a harpoon attached to a long line would be thrown into it. The whale would then drag the boats (the famous "Nantucket sleighride") until it was too tired to resist, at which point the crew would lance it to death.[13]
Hunting for sperm whales during this period was a notoriously dangerous affair for the crews of the whaleboats. Although a properly harpooned sperm whale generally exhibited a fairly consistent pattern of attempting to flee underwater to the point of exhaustion (at which point it would surface and offer no further resistance), it was not uncommon for bull whales to become enraged and turn to attack pursuing whaleboats on the surface, particularly if it had already been wounded by repeated harpooning attempts. A commonly reported tactic was for the whale to invert itself and violently thrash the surface of the water with its fluke, flipping and crushing nearby boats.
Particularly massive sperm whale specimens have also proven willing (on rare occasions) to attack comparably sized whaleships. In the most famous example, on November 20, 1820 a huge bull sperm whale (purportedly 85-ft in length) rammed the 87-ft
Another recorded case of a sperm whale attacking a large ship is that of the
20th century
Whaling activity declined from the 1880s until 1946, but picked up again after World War II. Modern whaling was more efficient than open-boat whaling, using steam and then diesel powered ships and exploding harpoons. Initially, modern whaling activity focused on large baleen whales, but as these populations were decimated, sperm whaling increased. Cosmetics, soap and machine oil formed the major uses of sperm whale products during this time. Sperm whale oil was still in use in automobile transmission cooling units in the United States in the 1970s.[23]
In modern whaling, after the oil had been extracted the meat was usually ground down into a meal for feeding livestock. After sperm whale populations declined significantly, the species was given full protection by the International Whaling Commission in 1985. Hunting of sperm whales by Japan in the northern Pacific Ocean continued until 1988.[13]
21st century
Sperm whales and other deep-sea species are still hunted from small open boats by hunters from two Indonesian villages,
Effect on sperm whale population
It is estimated that the historic worldwide sperm whale population numbered 1,100,000 before commercial sperm whaling began in the early 18th century.[25] By 1880 it had declined an estimated 29 per cent.[25] From that date until 1946 the population appears to have recovered somewhat as whaling pressure lessened, but after the Second World War, with the industry's focus again on sperm whales, the population declined even further to only 33 per cent.[25] It has been estimated that in the 19th century between 184,000 and 236,000 sperm whales were killed by the various whaling nations,[26] while in the modern era, at least 770,000 were taken, the majority between 1946 and 1980.[27]
Remaining sperm whale populations are large enough so that the species' conservation status is vulnerable, rather than endangered.
Gallery
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Whalers flensing blubber from a sperm whale.
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Whalers boiling blubber in atrypoton the deck of their ship (1874 illustration).
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Oswald Brierly, South Sea whalers boiling blubber, c1876. Dixon Galleries, State Library of New South Wales.
References
- ^ Gordon Jackson, The British whaling trade, London, 1978, p.49.
- ^ T. Mori & M. Saiki, "Properties of fats and oils contained in various parts of a sperm whale," Scientific Reports of the Whales Research Institute (Tokyo), No.3, February 1950, pp.79-84.
- ISBN 0-7748-0762-8.
- IUCN. p. 63. Retrieved 2008-10-11.
- ^ Jamieson, A. (1829). A Dictionary of Mechanical Science, Arts, Manufactures, and Miscellaneous Knowledge. H. Fisher, Son & Co. p. 566.
- ^ "Aquarium of the Pacific – Sperm Whale". Archived from the original on 2019-03-14. Retrieved 2008-10-11.
- ^ Simons, B. "Christopher Hussey Blown Out (Up) to Sea". Nantucket Historical Association.
- ^ Dudley, P. (1725). "An Essay upon the Natural History of Whales, with a Particular Account of the Ambergris Found in the Sperma Ceti Whale". Philosophical Transactions (1683–1775), Vol. 33. The Royal Society. p. 267.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-393-06057-7.
- ISBN 0-665-35343-X.
- ^ .
- ISBN 0-520-24884-8.
- ^ ISBN 0-226-89518-1.
- ISBN 0-87023-104-9.
- ^ Baldwin, R.; Gallagher, M. & van Waerebeek, K. "A Review of Cetaceans from Waters off the Arabian Peninsula" (PDF). p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-17. Retrieved 2008-10-15.
- ^ "The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex". BBC. Retrieved 2008-10-11.
- ^ Summers, Adam. "Fat Heads Sink Ships". American Museum of Natural History: Dept. of Biomechanics. "Untitled Document". Archived from the original on 2003-03-04. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
- ^ NY Times, 1851, "Thrilling Account of the Destruction of a Whale Ship by a Sperm Whale". https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1851/11/05/297732752.pdf
- ^ Whitehead, Hal (2003). Sperm Whale: Social Evolution in the Ocean. U. of Chicago Press. p. 16.
- ^ Beale, Thomas (1839). The natural history of the sperm whale (2nd ed.).
- ^ "Review of The Natural History of the Sperm Whale by Thomas Beale". The Quarterly Review. 63: 318–341. March 1839.
- ^ Bennett, Frederick Debell (1840). Narrative of a whaling voyage, round the globe from 1833 to 1836.
- ^ L.R. Magnolia (compiler), Whales, whaling and whale research, Whaling Museum, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, 1977, p.78.
- ^ Emont, Jon (3 August 2017). "A Whaling Way of Life Under Threat". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
- ^ . Retrieved 12 January 2018.
- ISBN 0-226-13789-9.
- ^ Over 680,000 officially reported at "Whaling Statistics". Archived from the original on 2019-10-15. Retrieved 2008-10-15.. In addition, studies have found that official reports understated USSR catches by at least 89,000 "Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus) California/Oregon/Washington Stock" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-10-16.. Furthermore, other countries, such as Japan have been found to have understated catches "The RMS – A Question of Confidence: Manipulations and Falsifications in Whaling" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-10-07. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
- ISBN 0-226-89518-1.