Every year, an estimated 13 million people go whale watching around the world and marvel at the sight of the largest animals that ever lived on Earth. It’s a dramatic reversal from a century ago, when few people ever saw a live whale. The creatures are still recovering from mass hunting on an industrial scale that nearly wiped out several species in the 20th century.
The history of whaling shows how humans have carelessly devastated the ocean, but also how they can change course. In my new book, Red Leviathan: The Secret History of Soviet WhalingI describe how the Soviet Union has been at the center of both this deadly industry and scientific research that helps us understand whale recovery.
On August 2, 2022, a humpback whale breaks through in Boston Harbor. Whaling has greatly reduced the numbers of humpback whales, but the species is recovering under international protection.
From wood to steel and from bad to worse
At the beginning of the 20th century, it seemed that whales would be given a reprieve after years of hunting. The Age of Sailboat Whaling, rendered in such memorable detail by Herman Melville in Moby Dickhad nearly wiped out slow, fatty species such as the right whale and bowhead whale, and also caused significant damage to sperm whales.
In the 19th century, American whalers sailed without restriction or hindrance to every corner of the world’s oceans, including the waters around Russia’s Siberian Empire. There, Tsarist officials watched in helpless fury as Americans slaughtered whales that many of the region’s indigenous peoples relied on.
In the 1870s, petroleum began to replace whale oil as a fuel. With few catchable whales left, the industry seemed to be coming to an end. But whalers found new markets. Hydrogenation – a chemical process that can be used to convert liquid oils into solid or semi-solid fats – allowed manufacturers to convert stinky whale products into odorless margarine for human consumption.
Around the same time, the Norwegians invented the explosive harpoon, which killed whales more efficiently than hand-thrown versions, and the stern ramp, which allowed the handling of whale carcasses aboard ships. Together with diesel engines and steel hulls, these technologies enabled whalers to attack previously pristine species in once inaccessible locations, such as Antarctica.
Late to the party, late to leave
As mechanized whaling gained momentum in the 1920s and 1930s, Norwegian, British and Japanese whalers cut through populations of blue, fin, and humpback whales on a scale that is hard to believe today. In what scientists once thought was the peak catch year, 1937, more than 63,000 large whales were killed and processed.
During World War II, this slaughter was briefly suspended, with many governments beginning to realize that the survival of some whale species was threatened. In 1946, whalers, statesmen and scientists formed the International Whaling Commission in hopes of bringing about a return to the disastrous antebellum levels of whaling.
That same year, the USSR joined the IWC and took control of a former Nazi whaling ship, which it renamed the Slavaor Glory. No one suspected the pivotal role the land would play in the most disastrous two decades of Earth’s long history of whales.
