Modern whaling industry in the polar areas

This project studies one of the Worlds most controversial industries: the Modern Whaling industry. Today, the remains of former whaling stations in the Arctic and Antarctic represent an environmental hazard, but also cultural heritage and a vast source of knowledge of historians and archaeologists. The aim of this project is to study the driving forces behind the development of this industry in the Polar Regions and its consequences for the geo-political situation there. Four former whaling stations and companies have been selected for case, and comparative studies: Finneset Whaling Station (Spitsbergen/Svalbard), Walrus Bay Whaling Station (Bear Island), Prince Olav Harbour (South Georgia) and Signy Island Whaling Station (South Orkneys). These whaling stations were operational in the same period (1905-1931) and they were all located in remote areas that have experienced waves of exploitation and geo-political rivalry throughout the course of their history.

A central hypothesis is that not only economical, but also technical, social and political driving forces determined the development and sustainment of the industry in the Polar Regions. I will investigate, if the motives of the main actors behind the industry harmonized with geo-political ambitions of various governments and in that case how and why. To what extent did the whaling industry and their related stations become symbols of economic progress and effective occupation and thus also geo-political tools? Another closely related question is why the whaling companies designed their stations in the Polar Regions the way they did? A hypothesis is that the whaling stations had an interpretative flexibility, as they not only were designed to process whales and accumulate economic profit, but also to exert control over workers and sustain claims to territories and resources in the Polar landscape. The project will contribute with new knowledge on the interaction between economic and geo-political interests in the Polar Regions, as well as on the role of technology in the historical processes of the Arctic and Antarctic.

Thesis

This is a sub-project of the larger LASHIPA (Large-scale Historical Exploitation of Polar Areas) project ( www.lashipa.nl ), which was among 200 international projects conducted during the International Polar Year 2007-8 ( http://ipy.arcticportal.org/ ).