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The origins of whaling in the United States of America date to the 17th century in New England and peaked in 1846-52. New Bedford, Massachusetts, sent out its last whaler, the ''John R. Mantra'', in 1927. The US continues whaling using the International Whaling Commission (IWC) exception for Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling )〕 Catches have increased from 18 whales in 1985 to over 70 whales in 2010.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://iwc.int/table_aboriginal )〕 The latest IWC whaling quota allows for a total of up to 336 bowhead whales can be killed in the period 2013 - 2018.〔 ==History== Whale hunting has been going on from Neolithic Period. The earliest American whalers were Native Americans along the northwestern and northeastern coasts. The Native Americans hunted using drift whaling where they would process the whale once it had died and washed ashore. In the 16th century, European sailors sailed from America in 20 feet long boats with the first type of harpoon. While on the way to Plymouth, a passenger on the Mayflower commented on the abundance of whales in New England waters. The towns of Long Island are believed to have been the first to establish a whale fishery on the shores of New England sometime around 1650. Nantucket joined in on the trade in 1690 when they sent for one Ichabod Padduck to instruct them in the methods of whaling. The south side of the island was divided into three and a half mile sections, each one with a mast erected to look for the spouts of right whales. Each section had a temporary hut for the five men assigned to that area, with a sixth man standing watch at the mast. Once a whale was sighted, whale boats were rowed from the shore, and if the whale was successfully harpooned and lanced to death, it was towed ashore, flensed (that is, its blubber was cut off), and the blubber boiled in cauldrons known as "trypots." Well into the 18th century, even when Nantucket sent out sailing vessels to fish for whales offshore, the whalers would still come to the shore to boil the blubber. In Nantucket, the first sperm whale was killed in 1712. In 1715 Nantucket had six sloops engaged in whale fishery, and by 1730 it had twenty-five vessels of 38 to 50 tons involved in the trade. Each vessel employed twelve to thirteen men, half of them being Native Americans. At times the entire crew, with the exception of the captain, might be natives. They had two whaleboats, one held in reserve should the other be damaged by a whale. Also, whaling voyage sailors could be African American, especially in the 1800s. The ''Industry'' had an all-black crew and sailed in 1822. The whaling business was more tolerant of African Americans than other occupations, and afforded them opportunities to rise and become successful, including ship captains. By 1732 the first Yankee whalers had reached the Davis Strait fishery, between Greenland and Baffin Island. The fishery slowly began to expand, with whalers visiting the west coast of Africa in 1763, the Azores in 1765, the coast of Brazil in 1773, and the Falklands in 1774. It wasn't until the 1800s that whaling really became an industry. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Whaling in the United States」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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