Whaling on the Pacific Northwest Coast

In the twentieth century there was a commercial whaling industry, small by global standards, in British Columbia and south-east Alaska, as evidenced by place names such as Blubber Bay.

By that point, marine entrepreneurs had moved on to hunting orcas (killer whales) for live capture, to be displayed in aquaria.

[2]  Ethnographic evidence shows whaling was practiced amongst the Mowachat, Ahousaht, Tla-o-qui-aht, Ucluelet, Tseshaht, Quileute, and Quinault.

[4]  Within each of these communities whaling has played an integral role in society, politics, and economy as well as cultural and spiritual activities.

[9][10]  It was believed that through the spirit world the haw'iih and haquum could connect to the whale, determining a successful hunt or not.

[12]  His wife held a rope tied around his waist, symbolic of the harpoon, and would sing a song to the spirit of the whale, telling it how they wanted it to act during the hunt.

[13] To take one example, Maquinna, chief of the Nuu-chah-nulth people of Nootka Sound during the heyday of the maritime fur trade in the 1780s and 1790s, worshipped at the Yuquot Whalers Shrine, which was eventually sold to an ethnographic collector and now resides in New York's American Museum of Natural History.

[16]  Floats made of seal skins would then be attached to the whale and the crews would begin towing the carcass back to shore.

[16]  After receiving their cut of meat and blubber, the whaling chief and his wife would return home and hang the saddle outside their house for oil extraction.