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The bowhead whales and seals living in the seas around Greenland have been exploited by European whalers for several centuries.

Initially the industry was dominated by the Dutch and Germans but after about 1800, English and Scots whalers from Dundee, Aberdeen and Peterhead were the main players. By the l890s the Greenland whales were practically extinct and the industry collapsed and died.

This web site deals with the history of the Greenland whale and seal fisheries, particularly the Scottish involvement, using resources from SCRAN and elsewhere.

There is information on the types of whales and seals that were exploited and on the many uses to which their products were put. You will also learn how they were hunted and how their blubber, bone and pelts transported back to Britain for processing.

The men involved in the industry were brave adventurers and some were to become knowledgeable scientists and naturalists. However, it must be accepted that the industry was a cruel affair and that it had a devastating and unsustainable impact on whale and seal populations. Just why this is so should become clear from the content of the pages that follow.