Whaling started about 900 A.D. The NativeAmericans hunted right whales from the Atlantic coast before the1760's. In the 1760's English colonist arrived to hunt whales. Atfirst Americans only hunted the right whale, because it had baleen.Baleen was used for many different purposes.

American Indians often used orca whales as symbolson their totem poles and canoes. Some Indians believed that peoplewho drowned in an ocean turned into a killer whale. Others believedthat killer whales could turn themselves into wolves and come onshore. Still others believed that orcas were their strongestgods.

In about 1815 Americans hunted sperm whales morethan any other whale. A sperm whale named Moby Dick is very well knowbecause of the novel written in 1815 by Herman Melvin.

The most whaling happened in the 1830's and endedabout 400 years later. During that time a lot of whales almost wentextinct. Today whaling in America is against the law. But theInternational Whaling Commision (I.W.C.) still lets Alaskan Eskimoshunt them for food and subsistence use.

Japan and Norway say they hunt whales forscientific reasearch, but whale meat is sold in stores andrestaurants in those same countries. In all the oceans of the UnitedStates marine mammals are protected by the Marine Mammal Act of 1972.This stops people from coming up to them in boats or planes orswimming with them. Green Peace, C.I.T.E.S. & Worldwide Fund ForNature helps ban whaling. The issues surrounding whaling have gottenattention from all over the world.