Last Whalers of the North

In the fjords of Norway and Greenland, on the beaches of the Faroe Islands and in the depths of the North Atlantic or Arctic Sea, whalers from Scandinavia still practice this old but controversial custom.
Whaling here in the North Atlantic is as old as human presence. Archeological sites all over Scan- dinavia and the politically associated islands show whale as a vital source of protein and fats, and whale oil has illuminated and heated the cold, dark Nordic homes for centuries.
However, during the industrialization, whaling transformed into a lucrative enterprise driving the whale population to the brink of extinction. An international ban on commercial whaling in 1982 has recovered most of the whale population and whaling is now strictly regulated. Today, approxi- mately half of the world’s whaling is done by fishermen and whalers from Iceland, Norway, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland. This includes both the commercial whaling practiced in Norway and Iceland, and the more traditional, ritualized whaling in the Faroe Islands and in Greenland.

The project is a part of National Geographic Explorer Program