| CRD 03-12
Table 1. Fourteen whaling eras, with approximate timing,
characteristic features, and spatial extent. |
| Era |
Start |
End |
Characteristic features |
Spatial extent |
| Prehistoric Unspecified |
Antiquity |
<1800 |
Highly variable; usually not well documented by written sources and thus
largely dependent upon artifacts, other archaeological evidence, sparse
written narratives, oral histories, etc. |
Indian Ocean, Tierra del Fuego, N Atlantic |
| Poison |
Antiquity (<1000 A.D.) |
Ca. 1900 |
Use of poison-tipped arrows, darts, or lances to kill, sometimes
involving barrier nets as well |
Norway/Iceland, Rim of N Pacific (Aleutians, Kodiak) |
| Net |
1674 |
1910 |
Fiber, leather, or steel nets, sometimes used in conjunction with driving
of animals (the many shut-in fisheries for belugas are not included here) |
New Zealand, Japan, Kamchatka |
Arctic Aboriginal |
Antiquity (<1000 A.D.) |
Ongoing |
Skin boats, hand harpoons and lances grading into use of firearms
and explosives in various forms, powered boats at least for towing
whales to ice edge or shore for processing |
Chukotka east to Greenland |
Temperate Aboriginal |
Antiquity (<1500 A.D.) |
Early 1900s |
Dugout or skin boats, mainly hand-powered; hand harpoons and lances |
NW North America |
Tropical Aboriginal |
Antiquity |
Ongoing |
Open boats powered by hand or sail, hand-delivered weapons (harpoons,
large hooks, blowhole plugs), shore processing |
Indonesia, Philippines |
Basque Shore |
1059 (or earlier) |
Ca. 1700 |
Open boats, hand- and sail-propelled, deployed from shore; harpoon-line-float;
hand lance; whales towed to shore for processing |
Rim of N Atlantic, some sites in eastern S America |
Basque Pelagic |
1300s |
1870s (Arctic) |
Mother-ship arrangement, dependent exclusively on hand and sail power;
blubber stowed on-board and delivered to processing sites on shore; hand
harpoon and lance |
Rim of N Atlantic including Nearctic |
American (“Yankee”) Shore |
1650 |
Ongoing (Bequia) |
Whaleboats launched from shore, hand- or sail-powered, grading into
powered boats at least for towing; hand harpoons and lances grading into
use of firearms and explosives in various forms |
Global except Antarctic |
American (“Yankee”) Pelagic |
1750 |
1928 |
On-board tryworks; mother-ship operations with whaleboats, hand-
and sail- powered; hand harpoons and lances grading into use of firearms
and explosives in various forms |
Global except Antarctic |
Transitional Steam |
1857 |
1915 (Alaska) |
Introduction of steam power, use of guns and explosives; whales could
be towed to shore or flensed and dismembered alongside |
NE United States, South Africa, Norway, Alaska, Arctic Atlantic |
Norwegian (Mechanized) Shore |
1868 |
Ongoing (in Japan) |
Powered catcher boats operating from shore stations; deck-mounted
cannons; whales towed to shore processing plants |
Global |
Factory-ship (Norwegian-type) |
1907 |
Ongoing (Japan in Antarctic) |
Engine-powered floating factories either moored near shore or pelagic;
powered catcher boats with deck-mounted cannons; eventually stern slipways
on factories for on-board processing |
Global |
Mechanized Small-type |
1908 |
Ongoing |
Powered catcher boats; deck-mounted harpoon guns and small cannons;
whales either flensed at sea or towed to shore for processing; coastal
or semi-pelagic |
Norway, Japan |
| Table 2. Four periods where the types of
information available on the extent and magnitude of whaling , showing
the basic features,
approximate time period, and representative types of sources. |
Period |
Basic Features |
Time Period |
Representative Source Types |
Archaeological |
Prehistoric, artifact-based, with limited ability to make inferences
from written materials (e.g., early travel narratives) |
Antiquity to 18th century |
Hunting tools (e.g., harpoons); whale bones in middens or shelter
structures, on beaches, or incorporated into art objects; illustrations
on cave walls or scenes depicted in carvings and other art/craft forms |
Ethnographic/Historical |
Written or printed materials, generally based on first-hand observations
by the writer |
1700 to early 1900s |
Descriptions in non-whaling trade newspapers, anthropological field
studies, diaries or journals of whalemen, personal account books |
Production-centered |
Records of oil, baleen (whalebone), and other whale products, usually
compiled on an annual or voyage basis |
1750 to early 1900s |
Whaling-trade newspapers, whaling voyage logbooks and account books,
customs-house records, British colonial Blue Books |
Individual whale-centered |
Records of numbers of whales caught and processed |
1870 to present |
Lists maintained by company or government officials, data sheets
submitted to national or international agencies (Bureau of Whaling Statistics,
International Whaling Commission) |
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