Industrial-scale whaling in the 19th and 20th centuries nearly drove many whale species to extinction. Populations of some of the large marine mammals are just beginning to recover after the kind of predation described in the novel “Moby-Dick,” while others face continued danger to their survival. But it turns out that the effects of whaling on where whales live go back much deeper in human history.
A new analysis of ancient whale bones, published Wednesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science, suggests that medieval European hunting may have played a role in the disappearance of some whales from northeastern Atlantic waters long before Captain Ahab, Ishmael and the Pequod great white whale. .
As far back as 8,000 years ago, people have been carving their whale-catching efforts into South Korean cliffs. More recently, medieval texts described the whaling preferences of Europeans. For example, an Old Norse text from about 1250 AD warns. and driven into the country by hundreds, and where many are taken, they provide much food for the people.”
Youri van den Hurk, a zooarchaeologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and author of the study, wanted to support the information in these texts with physical, biological evidence. So he and his colleagues examined 719 pieces of whale bones collected from archaeological sites from Norway to Portugal.
“These whale bones are found semi-regularly during archaeological digs, but they are often very fragmented,” said Dr. van den Hurk. “Identifying these whale bones to species level is actually quite difficult, even if these bones are truly complete.”
Bones contain a protein called collagen, and the chemical composition of collagen varies among whale species and families.
“This can give us a lot of information about what kind of species these bones actually represent,” said Dr. van den Hurk.
Analysis of the results showed that a disproportionate number of whales have become extinct in the northeast Atlantic Ocean. The 334 whales that emerged in the analysis were no surprise to Dr. van den Hurk, as they are often mentioned in historical sources, and some survived until the early 20th century.
But the results also showed that 110 of the bones belonged to gray whales, which is not as well documented.
“It was quite a surprise that we came across so many,” said Dr. van den Hurk.
It is almost impossible to tell whether a bone fragment comes from a whale that was actively hunted, as opposed to being recovered from a whale that washed up on the beach. However, the right whale and gray whale have long been prized by hunters because they are more docile than other species and their bodies float. The disproportionate number of right whale and gray whale bones at archaeological sites indicates that ancient Europeans were searching for these species.
Dr. van den Hurk and his colleagues hypothesize that centuries of hunting these species contributed to the eventual population collapse in the region. In the case of the gray whale, the final blow that effectively contributed to the species’ complete extermination in the North Atlantic was struck by whalers centuries ago, he said.
Vicki Ellen Szabo, a historian at Western Carolina University who reviewed the article for the magazine, said the study was “striking” for the evidence it put forward for a human role in the disappearance of the right and gray whales in Europe.
“Have humans put the nail in the coffin of the North Atlantic species? Not clear. Did they contribute to that? Yes,” said Dr. Szabo. “I think it’s an extremely cautionary tale. It shows that people perceived this limitless, limitless supply of the ocean, until they didn’t, until the whales changed course or the whales could no longer be found.”
The threat to North Atlantic right whales continues; there are only 300 copies left in the entire world. Gray whales have been missing from the North Atlantic Ocean for centuries, but are still common in the North Pacific.
Knowing more about where gray whales once lived in European waters could help scientists maintain current populations, especially as climate change alters the whales’ ecosystems.
“By looking to the past, we can optimize our understanding of what potential modern or future whales will do in European waters and protect them more effectively,” said Dr. van den Hurk.
