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133-607: The trade was broadly divided into two branches. The northern fishery involved hunting the bowhead whale off the coast of Greenland and adjacent islands. The southern fishery was activity anywhere else, including in the Atlantic , Pacific and Indian Oceans and off the Antarctic . The sperm whale , the southern right whale and humpback whale were the main target species in South Sea whaling. The industry went on to become

266-449: A buttress of bone in the upper jaw beneath the eyes, and loose lower jaw bones at the chin. Baleen is believed to have evolved around 30 million years ago, possibly from a hard, gummy upper jaw, like the one a Dall's porpoise has; it closely resembles baleen at the microscopic level. The initial evolution and radiation of baleen plates is believed to have occurred during Early Oligocene when Antarctica broke off from Gondwana and

399-623: A subsistence level, with low annual bowhead total quotas set by the International Whaling Commission in conjunction with individual village limits set by the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission. Bowhead hunting is limited to whaling crews who are: Baleen Baleen is a filter-feeding system inside the mouths of baleen whales . To use baleen, the whale first opens its mouth underwater to take in water. The whale then pushes

532-568: A British vessel sailed "to the country called Labrador , which joins Newfoundland , where the Biscay men go in search of whales." The Basques had whaled in the Bay of Biscay from the twelfth century and by the middle of the sixteenth century were crossing the Atlantic each year to the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland where they established temporary whaling settlements. Sustained British interest in

665-404: A South American deposit dating back 23 million years. An unknown species of right whale, the so-called "Swedenborg whale", which was proposed by Emanuel Swedenborg in the 18th century, was once thought to be a North Atlantic right whale. Based on later DNA analysis, those fossil bones claimed to be from Swedenborg whales were confirmed to be from bowhead whales. The bowhead whale has

798-431: A hybrid to baleen. It is known that modern mysticetes have teeth initially and then develop baleen plate germs in utero , but lose their dentition and have only baleen during their juvenile years and adulthood. However, developing mysticetes do not produce tooth enamel because at some point this trait evolved to become a pseudogene . This is likely to have occurred about 28 million years ago and proves that dentition

931-475: A large, robust, dark-coloured body and a white chin. It has a massive triangular skull , which it uses to break through the Arctic ice to breathe. Inuit hunters have reported bowheads surfacing through 60 cm (24 in) of ice. It also possesses a strongly bowed lower jaw and a narrow upper jaw. Its baleen is the longest of that of any whale, at 3 m (9.8 ft), and is used to strain tiny prey from

1064-1034: A large, upturning lip on the lower jaw that helps to reinforce and hold the baleen plates within the mouth. This also prevents buckling or breakage of the plates from the pressure of the water passing through them as the whale advances. To feed, water is filtered through the fine hairs of keratin of the baleen plates, trapping the prey inside near the tongue where it is then swallowed. The diet consists of mostly zooplankton , which includes krill , copepods , mysids , amphipods , and many other crustaceans . About 1.8 t (2 short tons) of food are consumed each day. While foraging, bowheads are solitary or occur in groups of two to 10 or more. Bowhead whales are highly vocal and use low frequency (<1000 Hz) sounds to communicate while travelling, feeding, and socialising. Intense calls for communication and navigation are produced especially during migration season. During breeding season, bowheads make long, complex, variable songs for mating calls. Many tens of distinct songs are sung by

1197-461: A low ebb for the next decade with some ports, such as Whitby and Hull, leaving the trade entirely for a time. Numbers slowly increased till there were fifty vessels involved by 1770. The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) acted as another break on northern whaling. When peace came in 1783 it was followed by an expansion in the British economy and a renewed demand for whale oil. America had been

1330-806: A major supplier to Britain, especially of sperm whale oil . Britain started to participate in the sperm whale fishery in 1775 and imposed a heavy duty on oil imported from elsewhere. The high tariff barrier remained after peace was declared and acted as an accelerent to British involvement in South Sea whaling. British activity in the Arctic also began to increase. The number of Greenland whalers rose from 44 in 1782 to 102 in 1784. The Greenland fishery peaked in 1786–1788 when 250 British vessels were involved with an aggregate tonnage of 73,000 and employing about 10,000 men. Those vessels came from 23 different ports, with London alone sending 91 vessels, followed by Hull with 36 and Whitby and Newcastle with twenty each. The year 1788

1463-615: A material for various human uses, baleen is usually called whalebone , which is a misnomer . The word " baleen " derives from the Latin bālaena , related to the Greek phalaina – both of which mean "whale". The oldest true fossils of baleen are only 15 million years old because baleen rarely fossilizes, but scientists believe it originated considerably earlier than that. This is indicated by baleen-related skull modifications being found in fossils from considerably earlier, including

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1596-449: A maximum length of 4 m (13 ft), and may be the longest-lived mammals, with the ability to reach an age of more than 200 years. The bowhead was an early whaling target. Their population was severely reduced before a 1966 moratorium was passed to protect the species. Of the five stocks of bowhead populations, three are listed as " endangered ", one as " vulnerable ", and one as "lower risk, conservation dependent" according to

1729-487: A new estimate of 14,400 animals (range 4,800–43,000). These larger numbers correspond to prewhaling estimates, indicating the population has fully recovered. However, if climate change substantially shrinks sea ice, these whales could be threatened by increased shipping traffic. The status of other populations is less well known. About 1,200 were off West Greenland in 2006, while the Svalbard population may only number in

1862-632: A part in the decline, as did the reduction in the duty on imported foreign-caught oil in 1843, and its total abolition in 1849. A decline in whale stocks was also a significant factor and caused a steady increase in the length of voyages. By 1843, only 36 vessels were still involved in the trade, and just 20 by 1850. The last British vessel involved in South Sea whaling in the Age of Sail was the Cowlitz (Captain Bushell) which returned to London in 1859. As well as

1995-483: A population in a single season. From 2010 through to 2014, near Greenland , 184 distinct songs were recorded from a population of around 300 animals. Sexual activity occurs between pairs and in boisterous groups of several males and one or two females. Breeding season is observed from March through August; conception is believed to occur primarily in March when song activity is at its highest. Reproduction can begin when

2128-606: A problem, these conflicts also presented opportunities for British whalers. Many of them sailed for the Pacific with Letters of Marque obtained from the government, allowing them to attack, capture and plunder enemy-owned trading vessels. Another significant barrier to expansion were Crown monopolies granted to the East India Company and the South Sea Company which restricted British maritime activity in

2261-547: A profitable national enterprise and a source of skilled mariners for the Royal Navy in times of war. Modern whaling , using factory ships and catchers fitted with bow-mounted cannons that fired explosive harpoons , continued into the 20th century and was mainly focused on the Antarctic and nearby islands where shore stations had been established. The collapse of whale stocks in the 1960s, due to overfishing , saw

2394-404: A single dive is usually limited to 9–18 minutes. The bowhead is not thought to be a deep diver, but can reach a depth down to 150 m (500 ft). It is a slow swimmer, normally travelling around 2–5 km/h (0.56–1.39 m/s; 1.2–3.1 mph). When fleeing from danger, it can travel at a speed of 10 km/h (2.8 m/s; 6.2 mph). During periods of feeding, the average swim speed

2527-428: A ton bounty represented a subsidy of £600 for the average-sized 300-ton ship in the trade. Also important was a jump in demand for whale oil. The manufacture of woollen textiles was increasing and right whale oil was widely used to clean wool before it was spun. The Industrial Revolution needed lubricants for machinery, and growing urbanization increased the demand for lamp fuel , including in street lighting . London

2660-601: A transition state between odontocetes and mysticetes. This intermediate step is further supported by evidence of other changes that occurred with the evolution of baleen that make it possible for the organisms to survive using filter feeding, such as a change in skull structure and throat elasticity . It would be highly unlikely for all of these changes to occur at once. Therefore, it is proposed that Oligocene aetiocetids possess both ancestral and descendant character states regarding feeding strategies. This makes them mosaic taxa , showing that either baleen evolved before dentition

2793-413: A tubular structure with a hollow medulla (inner core) enclosed by a tubular layer with a diameter varying from 60 to 900 microns, which had approximately 2.7 times higher calcium content than the outer solid shell. The elastic modulus in the longitudinal direction and the transverse direction are 270 megapascals ( MPa ) and 200 MPa, respectively. This difference in the elastic moduli could be attributed to

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2926-459: A well-defined area of 3,700 km (1,100  sq nmi ) north of Igloolik Island to Fury and Hecla Strait and Kapuiviit and Gifford Fiord , and into Gulf of Boothia and Prince Regent Inlet . Northward migrating along western Foxe Basin to eastern side of the basin also occurs in spring. Not much is known about the endangered Sea of Okhotsk population. To learn more about the population, these mammals have been regularly observed near

3059-504: A whale is 10 to 15 years old. The gestation period is 13–14 months with females producing a calf once every three to four years. Lactation typically lasts about a year. To survive in the cold water immediately after birth, calves are born with a thick layer of blubber . Within 30 minutes of birth, bowhead calves are able to swim on their own. A newborn calf is typically 4–4.5 m (13–15 ft) long, weighs roughly 1,000 kg (2,200 lb), and grows to 8.2 m (27 ft) within

3192-537: A £9 a tun duty on oil and £18 on "whale fins" ( baleen ) imported from other national fleets. It was not till Dutch involvement began to falter in the 1690s, due to political turmoil and warfare in Holland, that the British saw an opportunity, which led to the creation of the Greenland Company. The initiative was unsuccessful and the losses incurred were so large they discouraged further British involvement in

3325-451: Is 268 years based on genetic analysis. A greater number of cells present in an organism was once believed to result in greater chances of mutations that cause age-related diseases and cancer . Although the bowhead whale has thousands of times more cells than other mammals, it has a much higher resistance to cancer and aging. In 2015, scientists from the US and UK were able to successfully map

3458-567: Is an ancestral state of mysticetes. Using parsimony to study this and other ancestral characters suggests that the common ancestor of aetiocetids and edentulous mysticetes evolved lateral nutrient foramina , which are believed to have provided blood vessels and nerves a way to reach developing baleen. Further research suggests that the baleen of Aetiocetus was arranged in bundles between widely spaced teeth. If true, this combination of baleen and dentition in Aetiocetus would act as

3591-516: Is an important habitat for whales that were observed to be relatively active and to interact with humans positively, or to rest on sea floors. These whales belong to Davis Strait stock. Isabella Bay in Niginganiq National Wildlife Area is the first wildlife sanctuary in the world to be designed specially for bowhead whales. However, moultings have not been recorded in this area due to environmental factors. In 1978

3724-406: Is increased to 1.1–2.5 m/s (4.0–9.0 km/h; 2.5–5.6 mph). The head of the bowhead whale comprises a third of its body length, creating an enormous feeding apparatus. The bowhead whale is a filter feeder , and feeds by swimming forward with its mouth wide open. It has hundreds of overlapping baleen plates consisting of keratin hanging from each side of the upper jaw. The mouth has

3857-480: Is mostly restricted to the northwestern part along with Wager Bay , Repulse Bay , Southampton Island (one of two main known summering areas), Frozen Strait , northern Foxe Basin, and north of Igloolik in summer. Satellite tracking indicates that some portions of the group within the bay do not venture further south than Whale Cove and areas south of Coats and Mansel Islands . Cow – calf pairs and juveniles up to 13.5 m (44 ft) in length make up

3990-479: Is much smaller than the total population size of this group, but reports from local indigenous people indicate that this population is increasing over decades. Larger portions of the bay are used for summering, while wintering is on a smaller scale. Some animals winter in Hudson Strait , most notably north of Igloolik Island and north eastern Hudson Bay. Distribution patterns in these regions are affected by

4123-570: Is possibly functioning as the most important habitat for this population. It is unclear whether this population is a remnant of the historic Svalbard group, recolonized individuals from other stocks, or if a mixing of these two or more stocks has taken place. In 2015, discoveries of the refuge along eastern Greenland where whaling ships could not reach due to ice floes and largest numbers of whales (80–100 individuals) ever sighted between Spitsbergen and Greenland indicate that more whales than previously considered survived whaling periods, and flows from

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4256-400: Is true that many early baleen whales also had teeth, these were probably used only peripherally, or perhaps not at all (again like Dall's porpoise, which catches squid and fish by gripping them against its hard upper jaw). Intense research has been carried out to sort out the evolution and phylogenetic history of mysticetes, but much debate surrounds this issue. A whale's baleen plates play

4389-589: The American War of Independence curtailed supply. This prompted British entrepreneurs, particularly those who had previously imported the oil, to send their own ships into the South Seas to obtain this high-value commodity. Ten whalers left Britain in 1775, including nine from London, and crossed the equator into the South Atlantic in search of sperm whales. London alone sent 76 whaling vessels into

4522-487: The Antarctic Circumpolar Current was formed, increasing productivity of ocean environments. This occurred because the current kept warm ocean waters away from the area that is now Antarctica, producing steep gradients in temperature, salinity , light, and nutrients, where the warm water meets the cold. The transition from teeth to baleen is proposed to have occurred stepwise , from teeth to

4655-459: The Arctic and subarctic waters, and is named after its characteristic massive triangular skull, which it uses to break through Arctic ice. Other common names of the species included the Greenland right whale , Arctic whale , steeple-top , and polar whale . Bowheads have the largest mouth of any animal representing almost one-third of the length of the body, the longest baleen plates with

4788-811: The Davis Strait , and by the first quarter of the 19th century, Baffin Bay . In the North Pacific, the first bowheads were taken off the eastern coast of Kamchatka by the Danish whaleship Neptun , Captain Thomas Sodring, in 1845. In 1847, the first bowheads were caught in the Sea of Okhotsk, and the following year, Captain Thomas Welcome Roys , in the bark Superior , of Sag Harbor , caught

4921-564: The IUCN Red List . The global population is assessed as of least concern . Carl Linnaeus named this species in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae (1758). It was seemingly identical to its relatives in the North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Southern Oceans , and as such they were all thought to be a single species, collectively known as the "right whale", and given the binomial name Balaena mysticetus . Today,

5054-535: The International Whaling Commission (IWC) introduced a hunting strike quota for the Bering - Chukchi - Beaufort Sea (BCB) bowhead. The quota has remained at 67 strikes per year since 1998 and represents about 0.5 percent of BCB population. The population of bowheads in West Greenland and Canada is estimated to be 6,000 and rising, and hunts in this are minimal (<0.001 percent). Both stocks are rising, and

5187-591: The Minister of Food , Sir Frederick Marquis heard rumours the Germans were negotiating to buy whale oil from the Norwegians, to be made into margarine, he made contact with the traders and agreed the first price quoted and bought their entire stock and had it transported to Britain. Whale catchers and factory ships were requisitioned for military purposes and a number were sunk by enemy action. Whale numbers around

5320-490: The Shantar Islands , very close to the shore, such as at Ongachan Bay . Several companies provide whale-watching services, which are mostly land-based. According to Russian scientists, this total population likely does not exceed 400 animals. Scientific research on this population was seldom done before 2009, when researchers studying belugas noticed concentrations of bowheads in the study area. Thus, bowheads in

5453-537: The Spitsbergen (Svalbard) whaling grounds in 1611. By 1617 at least fifteen British vessels were whaling off Spitsbergen each season. Ongoing participation in the fishery proved elusive. It was due, in part, to costly competition between rival chartered companies as they tried to exclude each other, and their foreign rivals, from the region. In the meantime, the Dutch had entered the fishery and soon became dominant. By

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5586-578: The White Sea region, where few or no animals currently migrate, such as the Kola and Kanin Peninsula . Today, the number of sightings elsewhere is very small, but with increasing regularities with whales having strong regional connections. Whales have also started approaching townships and inhabited areas such as around Longyearbyen . The waters around the marine mammal sanctuary of Franz Josef Land

5719-422: The 1660s, there were hundreds of Dutch and German vessels active off Spitsbergen, while in some years not a single British vessel. Parliament tried to revive British involvement late in the 17th century. It began with legislation in 1672 that allowed British whaling crews to be composed of up to half foreign nationals, such as the skilled Dutch. The Act also exempted British-caught oil from customs duty, and imposed

5852-405: The 1780s. The government bounty of forty shillings a ton paid to northern whalers was extended to the southern fishery in 1776. A heavy import duty that applied to oil imported from other countries was not lifted even after hostilities between Britain and America ceased in 1783 and was an additional incentive for shipowners to remain involved in the trade. The first British whaler to enter the Pacific

5985-466: The 1945–46 season, rising to 89,012 tons in 1948–49. The renewed activity by British, Norwegian and other producers postponed any plans for regulations to limit the number of whales taken and make the industry sustainable. The International Whaling Commission reduced the length of the whaling season in the late 1940s, and also introduced catch limits. The quotas were set too high and, in any case, were ignored by some operators. Attempts were made to expand

6118-494: The 1960s. The official language there was Norwegian, indicating the main source of labour. A second British firm, the Southern Whaling and Sealing Company of North Shields, was established in 1911 to operate at Prince Olav Harbour on South Georgia. Old merchant vessels of 2000–3000 tons were brought into service as rudimentary factory ships by the Norwegians in 1905, and by the British in 1911. These vessels allowed

6251-646: The Australian colonies on the outward voyage to the South Seas. Others took with them trade goods they sold in the colonies, or at ports in South America. Contraband trading at South American ports and bays could be lucrative but, if detected by the Spanish colonial authorities, might result in confiscation of the ship and a lengthy period of imprisonment for the crews. In the years between 1800 and 1809

6384-540: The Basques killed them as they migrated south through the Strait of Belle Isle in the fall and early winter. In 1611, the first whaling expedition sailed to Spitsbergen . The whaling settlement Smeerenburg was founded on Spitsbergen in 1619. By midcentury, the population(s) there had practically been wiped out, forcing whalers to voyage into the "West Ice"—the pack ice off Greenland 's east coast. By 1719, they had reached

6517-501: The British South Sea whaling fleet averaged 72 vessels with 30 ships returning each year. The annual average catch during this period was 1,634 tuns of sperm and 3,300 tuns of southern right whale oil, with an average annual value of £122,000. British involvement in the South Seas fishery reached its peak, in terms of the number of vessels involved, in the years between 1820 and 1822. The end of subsidy payments in 1824 played

6650-484: The Enderby family, other prominent shipowners in the southern whale fishery included Daniel Bennett, Alexander Champion , John St Barbe and Thomas Sturge . The development of harpoons went hand in hand with the development of commercial whaling. Harpoon guns were trialed by the South Sea Company in 1737 and hand-held guns that discharged rocket harpoons were in general use by American and other national whalers in

6783-531: The Pacific and Indian Oceans to ships owned or licensed by the Companies. Pressure exerted by the London whaling lobby saw these restrictions gradually lifted between 1786 and 1813, after which British whalers had unrestricted access to all whaling grounds. Some whaling shipowners, such as Samuel Enderby & Sons and Mather & Co. , chartered their vessels to serve as convict transports and store ships to

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6916-698: The Pleistocene were far more southerly as fossils have been excavated from Italy and North Carolina , thus could have overlapped between those of Eubalaena based on those locations. Generally, five stocks of bowhead whales are recognized: 1) the Western Arctic stock in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas, 2) the Hudson Bay and Foxe Basin stock, 3) the Baffin Bay and Davis Strait stock, 4)

7049-529: The Pole-Star (1883) and Life on a Greenland Whaler (1897) are short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle and they draw on his experiences as doctor on the Arctic whaler Hope in 1880. Novels about British whaling in other regions include, R.M. Ballantyne, Fighting the Whales (1863); The South Sea Whaler (1875) by W.H.G. Kingston; Friedrich Gerstacker, Die Nacht auf dem Gerstacker (1875); G The Far Side of

7182-573: The Sea of Okhotsk stock, and 5) the Svalbard-Barents Sea stock. However, recent evidence suggests that the Hudson Bay and Foxe Basin stock and the Baffin Bay and Davis Strait stock should be considered one stock based on genetics and movements of tagged whales. The Western Arctic bowhead population, also known as the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort population, has recovered since the commercial harvest of this stock ceased in

7315-646: The Sea of Okhotsk were once called "forgotten whales" by researchers. The WWF welcomed the creation of a nature sanctuary in the region Possibly, vagrants from this population occasionally reach into Asian nations such as off Japan or the Korean Peninsula (although this record might be of a right whale ). The first documented report of the species in Japanese waters was of a strayed infant (7 m (23 ft)) caught in Osaka Bay on 23 June 1969, and

7448-573: The UK abandon the industry after three and a half centuries of involvement. Stranded whales , or drift whales that died at sea and washed ashore, provided meat , oil (rendered from blubber ) and bone to coastal communities in pre-historic Britain. A 5,000 year old whalebone figurine was one of the many items found in the Neolithic village of Skara Brae in Scotland after that Stone Age settlement

7581-626: The United Kingdom started to think about how to exit the industry. Hector Whaling did so in 1960 and Salvesen in 1963, bringing to an end three and a half centuries of British involvement. Whaling product imports were banned in Britain in 1973. A massive decline in whale numbers had made the industry uneconomic and the International Whaling Commission introduced a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1982. Britain

7714-496: The Western Arctic bowhead stock may be near its precommercial whaling level. Migration patterns of this population are being affected by climate change . Alaskan Natives continue to hunt small numbers of bowhead whales for subsistence purposes. The Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission co-manages the bowhead subsistence harvest with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Alaskan villages that participate in

7847-468: The World (1984) by Patrick O'Brian , tells of a British warship is sent into the Pacific to protect British South Sea whaling ships from an American privateer . Bowhead whale The bowhead whale ( Balaena mysticetus ) is a species of baleen whale belonging to the family Balaenidae and is the only living representative of the genus Balaena . It is the only baleen whale endemic to

7980-736: The area submitted a plan to invade New South Wales , destroy Sydney and carry away the 7,000 colonists to labour in Spain's own South American colonies. British whaling continued in the Pacific, with occasional setbacks along the way. These include the Anglo-French War (1778-1783) , the Anglo-Spanish War (1796-1808) and the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States. These conflicts forced vessels to travel to and from

8113-429: The baleen, thus sieving out the prey, which it then swallows. Whale baleen is the mostly mineralized keratin-based bio-material consisting of parallel plates suspended down the mouth of the whale. Baleen's mechanical properties of being strong and flexible made it a popular material for numerous applications requiring such a property (see Human uses section). The basic structure of the whale baleen has been described as

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8246-414: The bounty in 1824. Also significant was a fall in the price of whale oil to just £18 in 1820–21 season, in response to weak demand caused by a rise in imports of seed oil . More free trade legislation in 1844 saw the high duty on American-caught whale oil reduced from £27 18s 7d per tun to just £6 6s, and the duty on sperm oil fall to £15 15s. The duty reduction benefited consumers of whale oil but it exposed

8379-434: The bowhead subsistence harvest include Barrow, Point Hope, Point Lay, Wainwright, Nuiqsut, Kaktovik, Gambell, Savoonga, Kivalina, Wales, and Little Diomede. The annual subsistence harvest of the Western Arctic stock has ranged from 14 to 72, amounting to an estimated 0.1-0.5% of the population. In March 2008, Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans stated the previous estimates in the eastern Arctic had undercounted, with

8512-550: The bowhead whale has a vestigial pelvis that is not connected to the spine. Bowhead whales are comparable in size to the three species of right whales . According to whaling captain William Scoresby Jr., the longest bowhead he measured was 17.7 m (58 ft) long, while the longest measurement he had ever heard of was of a 20.4 m (67 ft) whale caught at Godhavn , Greenland, in early 1813. He also spoke of one, caught near Spitsbergen around 1800, that

8645-444: The bowhead whale occupies a monotypic genus , separate from the right whales , as proposed by the work of John Edward Gray in 1821. For the next 180 years, the family Balaenidae was the subject of great taxonometric debate. Authorities have repeatedly recategorized the three populations of right whale plus the bowhead whale, as one, two, three or four species, either in a single genus or in two separate genera. Eventually, it

8778-729: The compressive response. Crack formation is also different for both the transverse and longitudinal orientation. For the transverse direction, cracks are redirected along the tubules, which enhances the baleen's resistance to fracture and once the crack enters the tubule it is then directed along the weaker interface rather than penetrating through either the tubule or lamellae. People formerly used baleen (usually referred to as "whalebone") for making numerous items where flexibility and strength were required, including baskets , backscratchers , collar stiffeners , buggy whips , parasol ribs, switches, crinoline petticoats, farthingales , busks , and corset stays , but also pieces of armour. It

8911-419: The corpus cavernosum maxillaris, extends along the centre of the hard plate, forming two large lobes at the rostral palate. The tissue is histologically similar to that of the corpus cavernosum of the mammalian penis . This organ is thought to provide a mechanism of cooling for the whale (which is normally protected from the cold Arctic waters by 40 cm (16 in) or more of fat). During physical exertion,

9044-406: The creation of a number of new small whaling companies in Britain during the 1930s. These included Anglo-Norse Ltd, Polar Whaling Company and Star Whaling. There were still nine British shore-based whaling stations operating in the 1930s. To maintain production levels, the target species broadened, with fin, humpback and sperm whales taken in increasing numbers. Even so, on the eve of world war in 1939

9177-512: The deck meant further advances in efficiency and safety for those employed in the industry. Modern whaling in Britain can be dated from 1904, when Norwegian expatriate Christian Salvesen at Leith in Scotland established the Olna Whaling Company. Shore-based whaling stations established at Olna Firth and elsewhere in Scotland were highly productive, taking 2,418 Fin and 1,283 Sei whales between 1908 and 1914, inclusive. After

9310-399: The early 1900s. A 2019 study estimated that the Western Arctic population was 12,505; although it was lower than the 2011 value of 16,820, the surveyors believed there was no significant decline in 2011–2019 due to the unusual conditions of whale migration and observation in 2019. The yearly growth rate of the Western Arctic bowhead population was 3.7% from 1978 to 2011. These data suggest that

9443-553: The first bowheads in the Bering Strait region. By 1849, 50 ships were hunting bowheads in each area; in the Bering Strait, 500 whales were killed that year, and that number jumped to more than 2000 in 1850. By 1852, 220 ships were cruising around the Bering Strait region, which killed over 2,600 whales. Between 1854 and 1857, the fleet shifted to the Sea of Okhotsk, where 100–160 ships cruised annually. During 1858–1860,

9576-663: The first live sighting was of a 10 m (33 ft) juvenile around Shiretoko Peninsula (the southernmost of ice floe range in the Northern Hemisphere) on 21 to 23 June 2015. Fossils have been excavated on Hokkaido , but it is unclear whether the northern coasts of Japan were once included in seasonal or occasional migration ranges. Genetic studies suggest Okhotsk population share common ancestry with whales in Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort Seas, and repeated mixings had occurred between whales in

9709-457: The first year. Bowhead whales are considered to be the longest-living mammals , living for over 200 years. In May 2007, a 15 m (49 ft) specimen caught off the Alaskan coast was discovered with the 89 mm (3.5 in) head of an explosive bomb lance of a model manufactured between 1879 and 1885, so the whale was probably bomb lanced sometime between those years, and its age at

9842-416: The forming/melting of ice. Historically, bowhead whales' range may have been broader and more southerly than currently thought. Bowheads were abundant around Labrador, Newfoundland ( Strait of Belle Isle ) and the northern Gulf of St Lawrence until at least the 16th and 17th centuries. It is unclear whether this was due to the colder climate during these periods. The distribution of Balaena spp. during

9975-538: The gene UCP1 , a gene involved in thermoregulation , can explain differences in the metabolic rates in cells. The bowhead whale is the only baleen whale to spend its entire life in the Arctic and subarctic waters. The Alaskan population spends the winter months in the southwestern Bering Sea . The group migrates northward in the spring, following openings in the ice, into the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. The whale's range varies depending on climate changes and on

10108-413: The growth of the fleet. They were closer to the northern whaling grounds and sent forth more whalers to the Arctic than English outports early in this revival of interest in the trade. Scottish ports involved in the trade, in order of importance, were, Leith , Dunbar , Borrowstounness (Bo'ness), Dundee , Aberdeen , Montrose , Glasgow , Anstruther , Greenock , Kirkcaldy and Alloa . London remained

10241-462: The hub of the American whaling industry , sought to evade British naval blockades of American ports, and the high duty on imported foreign whale oil, by relocating, first to France, and then to Britain. The Rotch family owned at least ten British South Sea whalers between 1775 and 1794. The British ships initially "fished" in the mid and south Atlantic, spreading into the Pacific and Indian Oceans in

10374-614: The indigenous hunts seem to be self-sustaining. Orca are also known predators. There is no consensus on the number of deaths by orca. Bowheads seek the ice and shallow waters' safety when threatened by orca. The Inuit have a traditional word for this behavior to give historical context that this is not a new phenomenon. Global warming is increasing the frequency that orca are observed in the far north. A once-rare event, orca are now seen more frequently. There are no reports of attacks on bowheads by sharks. The bowhead whale has been hunted for blubber , meat, oil , bones, and baleen. Like

10507-427: The industry might be made sustainable. Efforts were made to further limit the length of the whaling season and quotas were introduced on the number of whales that could be taken. More effective in limiting the catch was the ongoing surplus of oil in storage and the resulting low price that continued to restrict the number of factory ships at sea. This continued until 1935, when a rise in the price of oil saw an increase in

10640-431: The industry was facing difficult times with declining whale stocks, rising costs and falling demand as manufacturers switched to whale oil substitutes, such as palm oil. The Second World War devastated the whaling industry. The European market for British-caught oil disappeared almost overnight. But a new market opened up as the British government began to buy and stockpile any whale oil they could lay their hands on. When

10773-578: The inter-war years. The profits in the industry saw the creation of a third British firm in 1928, the Hector Whaling Company, with a nominal capital of £250,000. An increase in the number of factory ships from 17 to 41, most of them deployed to the Ross Sea, saw total world whale oil production explode from 145,394 tons in 1926–27 to 601,392 tons in the 1930–31 season, while the British component went from 61,781 tons to 120,533 tons during

10906-508: The introduction of larger catchers, that could range further, and a switch in target species from fin whales to blue whales . The depletion of South Georgia waters by the 1920s saw British companies invest in new factory ships that could be sent to whaling grounds further afield during the brief three month long Antarctic whaling season. The waters around the South Shetland Islands and South Orkney Islands were tried but

11039-499: The issue saw Spanish warships, thousands of miles away on the west coast of what is now Canada, seize British vessels engaged in the maritime fur trade in Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island . The resulting Nootka Crisis was an international incident that brought both nations to the brink of war. War was averted but tensions remained high. Australia was also in their sights. In 1793 a Spanish naval captain with recent knowledge of

11172-625: The major development in the 1920s was the discovery by the Norwegian, Captain Carl Anton Larsen in the 1923–24 season, of a passage through the pack ice to the ice-free waters of the Ross Sea . The difficult conditions in the Ross Sea called for larger factory ships and more powerful catchers. Christian Salvesen took delivery of six new catchers in 1924, the first of forty catchers commissioned and built at Middlesbrough for them during

11305-549: The major user of whale oil in Britain. A major event in the post-war years was the purchase of the Southern Whaling Company by Lever Brothers for £360,000 in September 1919. The Southern Whaling and Sealing Company and Christian Salvesen were the two main producers of whale oil from shore-based whaling stations and floating factory ships in the Antarctic in the early 1920s. Other significant developments were

11438-551: The majority of summering aggregation in the northern Foxe Basin, while matured males and noncalving females may use the northwestern part of Hudson Bay. Fewer whales also migrate to the west coast of Hudson Bay and Mansel and Ottawa Islands . Bowhead ranges within Hudson Bay are usually considered not to cover southern parts, but at least some whales migrate to locations further south such as Sanikiluaq and Churchill river mouth . Congregation within Foxe Basin occurs in

11571-475: The market for whale meat in Britain by marketing it for human consumption, but were unsuccessful. After the oil was extracted most of the residue continued to be processed into low-value meat meal to feed livestock. The value of whale oil peaked in 1950–1952, in anticipation of strong demand during the Korean War , and then began to decline. The British share of the catch fell after 1954 and companies based in

11704-402: The most important role in its filter-feeding process. To feed, a baleen whale opens its mouth widely and scoops in dense shoals of prey (such as krill , copepods , small fish , and sometimes birds that happen to be near the shoals), together with large volumes of water. It then partly shuts its mouth and presses its tongue against its upper jaw, forcing the water to pass out sideways through

11837-456: The number of ships to sail. Some of these "fished" the whaling grounds off Western Australia, Peru and Madagascar. The old cycle was soon repeated with overproduction and the inevitable crash in the oil price. The oil surplus of the 1935–36 season was the result of good weather in the Antarctic and the activity of new whaling factories and catchers, including some from Japan, Germany and Denmark, new entrants into modern whaling. It also reflected

11970-696: The oil was extracted, the meat and bone was ground into a meal used as an animal food supplement. Salvesen later established other stations at Thorvig in the Faroe Islands and at Hellisford in Iceland . Modern whaling methods soon depleted whaling stocks in European waters and companies began to look further afield. The Dundee whaling expedition set out from Scotland and ventured to the Antarctic in 1892–93 to look for whaling grounds that might be worth fishing. The first modern shore-based whaling station in

12103-457: The one claimed in 1850) may weigh up to 100 t (110 short tons; 98 long tons). Analysis of hundreds of DNA samples from living whales and from baleen used in vessels, toys, and housing material has shown that Arctic bowhead whales have lost a significant portion of their genetic diversity in the past 500 years. Bowheads originally crossed ice-covered inlets and straits to exchange genes between Atlantic and Pacific populations. This conclusion

12236-422: The other populations are possible. During expeditions by a tour operator 'Arctic Kingdom', a large group of bowheads seemingly involved in courtship activities was discovered in very shallow bays south of Qikiqtarjuaq in 2012. Floating skins and rubbing behaviours at sea bottom indicated possible moulting had taken place. Moulting behaviours had never or seldom been documented for this species before. This area

12369-634: The pack ice in the northeastern Sea of Okhotsk, then in Tausk Bay and Northeast Gulf ( Shelikhov Gulf ). Soon, ships expanded to the west, catching them around Iony Island and then around the Shantar Islands . In the Western Arctic, they mainly caught them in the Anadyr Gulf , the Bering Strait, and around St. Lawrence Island . They later spread to the western Beaufort Sea (1854) and the Mackenzie River delta (1889). Commercial whaling,

12502-531: The presence of orca , and bowheads can disappear from normal ranges in the presence of atypical numbers of orca. Increased mortality caused by orca attack is a possible outcome of climate change , as reduced ice coverage is expected to result in fewer areas that the bowheads can use for shelter from attack. Whaling grounds in the 19th century stretched from Marble Island to Roes Welcome Sound and to Lyon Inlet and Fisher Strait , and whales still migrate through most of these areas. Distribution within Hudson Bay

12635-540: The principal cause of the population decline, is over. Bowhead whales are now hunted on a subsistence level by native peoples of North America . In 2024, the Inuit hunters of Aklavik , Northwest Territories were permitted to hunt and kill one bowhead whale with the whale meat , an important part of Inuit cuisine , to be distributed to Inuvialuit and Gwich'in communities in the region. Some Alaska Natives continue by tradition to hunt bowhead and beluga whales on

12768-470: The right of all whales cast by chance upon the shore." Whales came to be known as "Royal fish", the disposal of which was an exclusive right of the monarch, or his local representative. Indeed, to this day, the Crown Estate asserts that "theoretically The king can claim ownership" of beached whales and other "Royal fish". The first tentative interest in commercial whaling may have occurred in 1576 when

12901-406: The right whale, it swims slowly, and floats after death, making it ideal for whaling. Before commercial whaling, they were estimated to number 50,000. Paleo-Eskimo sites indicate bowhead whales were eaten in sites from perhaps 4000 BC. Inuit people near the Pacific developed specific hunting tools, with the whales providing food and fuel. Commercial bowhead whaling began in the 16th century when

13034-516: The same period. This massive oversupply led to a rise in inventories and a dramatic fall in price which resulted in the decision by the Norwegians to keep their vessels in port for the 1931–32 season. British producers responded by closing two unprofitable shore-based stations in Scotland and another in South Africa. Continued overfishing and the resulting depletion of whale stocks in Antarctic waters turned thoughts to greater regulation and how

13167-470: The second half of the 19th century. Further experimentation at that period by Svend Foyn at Tonsberg in Norway resulted in a safer and more efficient harpoon cannon that was patented in 1870. These cannon were mounted on the bow of steam-powered metal-hulled catchers and allowed faster whale species to be hunted. The introduction of factory ships that could winch the captured whales up a stern ramp and onto

13300-437: The ship. If there was no vessel nearby to take them aboard they would soon freeze to death. Even those taken aboard another vessel faced scurvy or starvation in crowded unsanitary conditions till the ice began to break up and the vessel could begin the journey home. Sperm whale oil – a valuable commodity worth two or three times more than northern right whale oil – had been imported from Britain's New England colonies till

13433-439: The ships shifted back to the Bering Strait region, where the majority of the fleet cruised during the summer until the early 20th century. An estimated 18,600 bowheads were killed in the Bering Strait region between 1848 and 1914, with 60% of the total being reached within the first two decades. An estimated 18,000 bowheads were killed in the Sea of Okhotsk during 1847–1867, 80% in the first decade. Bowheads were first taken along

13566-484: The single most important port dispatching 71% of British whalers in 1753. Other English ports involved include Hull (from 1598), Newcastle (1752), Whitby (1753), Exeter (1754), Ipswich (1786) and Peterhead (1788). Additional English and Welsh ports participating during the "bounty period" (1733–1824) were Berwick , Dartmouth , Grimsby , Liverpool , Lynn , Milford , Scarborough , Stockton , Sunderland , Whitehaven and Yarmouth . There were setbacks along

13699-444: The south Atlantic between 1776 and 1783. British vessels went on to make around 2,500 voyages whaling and sealing voyages to the South Seas between 1775 and 1859. These voyages were made by over 930 vessels owned by 300 principal shipowners. Some of these vessels in the South Atlantic also engaged in clandestine trading on the coast of Brazil. A group of American Quaker whalers, led by William Rotch, senior (1734–1828) of Nantucket , then

13832-508: The southern hemisphere was established at Grytviken on South Georgia by an Argentine company in 1904. There were nineteen whaling firms in the region by 1914, most of them owned or staffed by Norwegians. Christian Salvesen established a new whaling company in 1908 which began operations at West Falkland in January 1909 and, later in the year, at South Georgia. The latter operation was based at Leith Harbour and it continued to function till

13965-486: The tens. However, the numbers have been increasing in recent years. The Hudson Bay – Foxe Basin population is distinct from the Baffin Bay  –  Davis Strait group. The original population size of this local group is unclear, but possibly about 500 to 600 whales annually summered in the northwestern part of the bay in the 1860s. It is likely that the number of whales that actually inhabit Hudson Bay

14098-633: The three living right whale species comprise a phylogenetic lineage, distinct from the bowhead, and that the bowhead and the right whales are rightly classified into two separate genera. The right whales were thus confirmed to be in a separate genus, Eubalaena . The relationship is shown in the cladogram below:   E. glacialis   (North Atlantic right whale)   E. japonica   (North Pacific right whale)   E. australis   (Southern right whale)   B. mysticetus   (bowhead whale) The earlier fossil record shows no related cetacean after Morenocetus , found in

14231-483: The time of death was estimated at between 115 and 130 years. Spurred by this discovery, scientists measured the ages of other bowhead whales; one specimen was estimated to be 211 years old. Other bowhead whales were estimated to be between 135 and 172 years old. This discovery showed the longevity of the bowhead whale is much greater than originally thought. Researchers at CSIRO , Australia's national science agency, estimated that bowhead whales' maximum natural lifespan

14364-618: The trade began in 1577 when the Muscovy Company in London was granted a Crown monopoly to hunt whales "within any seas whatsoever." It may have been further stimulated when in 1579, for political reasons, parliament banned whale oil imports from the Spanish Basque country , the main exporters of whale oil. A vessel owned by the London-based Muscovy Company discovered in 1610 and began to exploit

14497-491: The trade in Britain. Parliament wanted to revive whaling to reduce the trade imbalance with Holland and at the same time build up a naval reserve of ships and men that could be easily mobilised in times of war. In 1732 it offered an annual bounty of twenty shillings (one pound sterling) a ton for all whaling vessels over 200 tons fitted out in Great Britain, the relevant legislation coming into force in 1733. The bounty

14630-528: The trade till the 1720s, when Henry Elking persuaded the South Sea Company to try the Spitsbergen fishery. Two dozen new vessels were built and equipped and sent forth under the direction of Elking as agent and superintendent for the Greenland Fishery on a salary of £100 a year plus 1.5% of gross sales. This initiative too was unsuccessful and spelled the end of chartered company involvement in

14763-775: The two seas. The most endangered but historically largest of all bowhead populations is the Svalbard/Spitsbergen population. Occurring normally in Fram Strait , Barents Sea and Severnaya Zemlya along Kara Sea to Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea regions, these whales were seen in entire coastal regions in European and Russian Arctic, even reaching to Icelandic and Scandinavian coasts and Jan Mayen in Greenland Sea , and west of Cape Farewell and western Greenland coasts. Also, bowheads in this stock were possibly once abundant in areas adjacent to

14896-486: The upper jaw of whales. Depending on the species, a baleen plate can be 0.5 to 3.5 m (1.6 to 11.5 ft) long, and weigh up to 90 kg (200 lb). Its hairy fringes are called baleen hair or whalebone hair. They are also called baleen bristles, which in sei whales are highly calcified, with calcification functioning to increase their stiffness. Baleen plates are broader at the gumline (base). The plates have been compared to sieves or Venetian blinds . As

15029-465: The water out, and animals such as krill are filtered by the baleen and remain as a food source for the whale. Baleen is similar to bristles and consists of keratin , the same substance found in human fingernails, skin and hair. Baleen is a skin derivative. Some whales, such as the bowhead whale , have longer baleen than others. Other whales, such as the gray whale , only use one side of their baleen. These baleen bristles are arranged in plates across

15162-412: The water. The bowhead whale has paired blowholes at the highest point of the head, which can spout a blow 6.1 m (20 ft) high. The bowhead's blubber is the thickest of any animal's, with a maximum of 43–50 cm (17–20 in). Unlike most cetaceans, the bowhead does not have a dorsal fin —an adaptation for spending much time under sea-surface ice. Like the sperm whale and other cetaceans,

15295-455: The way the sandwiched tubular structures are packed together. Hydrated versus dry whale baleen also exhibit significantly different parallel and perpendicular compressive stress to compressive strain response. Although parallel loading for both hydrated and dry samples exhibit higher stress response (about 20 MPa and 140 MPa at 0.07 strain for hydrated and dry samples respectively) than that for perpendicular loading, hydration drastically reduced

15428-483: The way. These included war in Europe in 1756 , which saw the crews of some northern whalers depleted by the press-gangs , regardless of exemptions granted to harpooners , line-managers and boatsteerers A fall in the price of oil at the same time also impacted the industry and led shipowners to leave the trade. There were eighty-three vessels involved in 1759, and just forty when the war ended in 1763. Whaling remained at

15561-420: The whale must cool itself to prevent hyperthermia (and ultimately brain damage). This organ becomes engorged with blood, and as the whale opens its mouth cold seawater flows over the organ, thus cooling the blood. The bowhead whale is not a social animal, typically travelling alone or in small pods of up to six. It is able to dive and remain submerged under water for up to an hour. The time spent under water in

15694-757: The whale's genome . Through comparative analysis, two alleles that could be responsible for the whale's longevity were identified. These two specific gene mutations linked to the bowhead whale's ability to live longer are the ERCC1 gene and the proliferating cell nuclear antigen ( PCNA ) gene. ERCC1 is linked to DNA repair and increased cancer resistance. PCNA is also important in DNA repair. These mutations enable bowhead whales to better repair DNA damage, allowing for greater resistance to cancer. The whale's genome may also reveal physiological adaptations such as having low metabolic rates compared to other mammals. Changes in

15827-427: The whaling grounds in convoys protected by Royal Navy warships. This was not always enough and in 1797 a number of the British whalers were captured when they called at ports on the coast of Chile and Peru for supplies, unaware that war had broken out between Spain and Britain. The US warship Essex captured a dozen British whalers in the Pacific in 1812, the loss in ships and cargo estimated at $ 2.5 million. As well as

15960-424: The whaling industry to the cold winds of competition, and it withered in response. Poor seasons became more common as whale stocks declined, further hastening the exit from the industry. The vessels still engaged stayed longer on the whaling grounds to achieve better results and in the process were sometimes trapped by the ice. Forced to over-winter, some ships were crushed by the ice and their crewmen had to evacuate

16093-431: The whole whale to be processed with less waste. The start of World War I led to an increased demand for whaling products, and catches by the two British firms in the Antarctic increased in response. Advances in hydrogenation allowed the oil from baleen whales to be hardened to make margarine , a substitute for butter, in short supply due to the war. The hardened whale oil was also used to make soap, with Lever Brothers

16226-565: The world recovered slightly during the conflict. When the Second World War ended, the war on the whales began again. An urgent need for edible oils of all kinds in the post-war period saw the price of whale oil reach £100 a ton on several occasions between 1945 and 1952 and prompted a resurgence in the industry. Some of the vessels sent south had been seized from Germany as enemy property while other factories and catchers were newly built. British companies produced 39,708 tons of oil in

16359-643: Was allegedly nearly 21.3 m (70 ft) long. In 1850, an American vessel claimed to have caught a 24.54 m ( 80 + 1 ⁄ 2  ft) individual in the Western Arctic. Whether these lengths were actually measured is questionable. The longest reliably measured were a male of 16.2 m (53 ft) and a female of 18 m (59 ft), both landed in Alaska. On average, female bowheads are larger than males. The adults would have likely measured 19 m (62 ft) in length and 80 t (88 short tons; 79 long tons) in body mass, but larger individuals (like

16492-502: Was also one of massive loss with the fleet as a whole recording a deficit of £199,371, the London vessels by themselves losing £40,000. Vessels began to leave the trade and by 1790 only eleven ports were still involved. The number of vessels involved in northern whaling slowly picked up as the turn of the century approached, largely unaffected by the French Revolutionary period and Napoleonic Wars. The price of oil and bone

16625-472: Was derived from analyzing maternal lineage using mitochondrial DNA . Whaling and climatic cooling during the Little Ice Age , from the 16th century to the 19th, is supposed to have reduced the whales' summer habitats, which explains the loss of genetic diversity. A 2013 discovery has clarified the function of the bowhead's large palatal retial organ. The bulbous ridge of highly vascularized tissue,

16758-432: Was increased to thirty shillings a ton in 1740, but even then only four or five British vessels sailed north each year. Most of these were owned by merchants who imported whale oil. The government increased the bounty to forty shillings a ton in 1750 and this proved the tipping point for a take off in the trade. Just two ships were fitted out in 1749, increasing to twenty in 1750, and eighty-three by 1756. The forty shillings

16891-533: Was lost or that the traits for filter feeding originally evolved for other functions. It also shows that the evolution could have occurred gradually because the ancestral state was originally maintained. Therefore, the mosaic whales could have exploited new resources using filter feeding while not abandoning their previous prey strategies. The result of this stepwise transition is apparent in modern-day baleen whales, because of their enamel pseudogenes and their in utero development and reabsorbing of teeth. If it

17024-704: Was one of 25 members of the Commission to successfully approve the moratorium, which went into effect in 1986. Novels about British whaling in polar regions include, W.H.G. Kingston , Peter the whaler, his early life and adventures in the Arctic regions (1851); R.M. Ballantyne , The world of ice, or, the whaling cruise of the Dolphin, and the adventures of her crew in the Arctic regions (1859); Frank Bullen , The Bitter South (1909); Hammond Innes , The White South (1949); Mark Adlard , The Greenlander (1978); Jessica Blair , The Red Shawl (1992). The Captain of

17157-414: Was recognized that bowheads and right whales were different, but there was still no strong consensus as to whether they shared a single genus or two. As recently as 1998, Dale Rice listed just two species – B. glacialis (the right whales) and B. mysticetus (the bowheads) – in his comprehensive and otherwise authoritative classification. Studies in the 2000s finally provided clear evidence that

17290-762: Was the Emilia , owned by Samuel Enderby & Sons and commanded by Captain James Shields. This vessel sailed from London in September 1788 and fished the Peru Grounds before returning to London in March 1790 with 139 tons of sperm whale oil. International conflict became inevitable, spilling over all the continents of the New World . Spain resented the intrusion of British vessels into the Pacific, especially when they engaged in clandestine trading at Spanish colonies in South America . In 1789, rising tension over

17423-434: Was the best lit city in the world, with 5000 street lamps by the 1740s. The building industry also used whale oil as an ingredient in paint, varnish and putty. All of this increase in demand led to a rise in price. The average wholesale price was £14 7s a tun early in the 1740s and this rose to £27 a tun in 1754. At the same time Dutch had started to withdraw from the fishery. Scottish ports were well placed to participate in

17556-555: Was uncovered by a storm in the 1850s. Whalebone weaving combs from the middle and late Iron Age have been found on archaeological digs in Orkney and Somerset . A charter granted to Hilary, Bishop of Chichester in 1148 gave him the right to "any whale found on the land of the church of Chichester, except the tongue, which is the King's." The English king had asserted the right to the entire whale by 1315 when Edward II reserved "to himself

17689-468: Was volatile and the latter ranged in price from £400 a ton to just £30 between the 1760s and 1815. Prices began to improve as the new century progressed and the Davis Strait fishery began to develop. The size of the fleet peaked in 1821 after which it began a long slow decline that lasted until the end of the century. The decline began when the Board of Trade introduced free trade legislation that removed

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