Unfortunately, the human fascination with whales has its dark side. Humans have long been the whales’ number one predator. Since the 12th century, whales have been hunted by humans in huge numbers, thanks to an enormous demand for whale products. Whale oil was used in lamps, and also to make candles, soap, cosmetics, paint, and shoe polish; baleen was used to make fishing rods, umbrella frames and corsets (an old type of women’s undergarment); even the whale’s skin was used to make boot laces. By as early as the 17th or 18th centuries, some whale species (such as the Atlantic Gray Whale) had already been hunted to the point of extinction. But the 19th century invention of more powerful, explosive harpoons, and the 20th century development of floating whale factories, which could process whale bodies at sea, meant that nearly all species of large whales were endangered.
By the 1970’s, so few large whales remained that whaling was becoming less profitable. In 1986, after decades of protest by environmental groups, an international ban on whaling was announced. Japan and Norway have continued to hunt despite the ban; several hundred large whales are still taken each year. The ban does not cover the smaller species of cetaceans, which are now being hunted in larger numbers than ever. And humans’ predatory habits affect whales in other ways, too. Each year, hundreds or possibly thousands of dolphins are killed when trapped in the nets used to catch tuna and other kinds of fish.
