Whaling Days- A Children's Book About the History of Whaling
Whaling Days by Carol Carrick is a nonfiction children's picture book written in 1993; illustrated with various woodcuts by artist David Frampton. While the book is not written by an expert in whaling and should not be used as a scholarly resource, it can be used as a starting point to teach children and older adolescents interested in animal activism about the history of whaling, its purpose, how it was done, who did it, where, and why.Â
Whaling is still an extremely controversial practice today, and it is barely talked about in the mainstream. Whaling Days does a great job explaining whaling in an informative and interesting way for people of all ages. By providing historical and modern information on the whaling industry, the book leaves the reader with the information they need to form their own opinion on the practice instead of leaving them with a black-or-white viewpoint. While reading the book, I was able to fact-check the historical information; however, please note that the author refers to the Soviet Union, which does date the book.
Whaling Days creates a timeline of whaling, starting in the 12th century, illustrating the development of whaling over time. Doing this allows the book to focus on the most important parts of the whaling industry in a way that is simply understood. The historical facts about working in the industry stood out to me in particular as it humanizes a group of people who are easy to hate. I was also delighted to find that the author included the different species of whales hunted, how they were hunted, and the impact of whaling on their populations to this day. For example, in the 12th century, the Basque people became the first to hunt whales commercially. It was not until the 17th century that whale oil began being used for items like candles, soap, and lamp oil, creating competition between the Dutch and English and the start of whaling as an industry.Â
Whaling Days focuses primarily on American Whaling practices. When Pilgrims first came to America, the Native Americans taught them how to hunt for large whales, like the Right Whale, with long vines attached to harpoons. The Right Whale was an easily hunted large whale. By 1690, pilgrims had almost brought the Right Whale to extinction, halting the growth of the whaling industry. To this day, the Right Whale is critically endangered and has little hope of ever having a complete population recovery. The book's inclusion of the Right Whalesâ endangered status is extremely important as it teaches children the lasting effects of unregulated hunting and poaching.
Being a whaler was not easy, and the book provides insight into the harsh living conditions of sailors and whalers and their difficult and life-threatening jobs. While diving into the negative aspects of living as a whaler is meaningful, there were a lot of positive aspects of being a whaler that the book covers (like how African Americans and Native Americans were able to get paid for their work). Insight into the life of a Whaler is a great way to teach children and adults alike how important whale oil was at this time, with men sacrificing their lives to get it. The woodcuts used in this part of the book are very informative and are used to help the reader identify the processes and tools used while whaling in a fascinatingly creative way.Â
While whale oil was needed and the whale industry was on the rise, the use of petroleum oil changed that. This is an aspect of whaling that is largely overlooked. When petroleum oil became widely used, Whale oil became cheap and useless, however, some people still felt a need to hunt. In the mid-1800s, the first Blue Whale was killed. Now, being able to kill the largest whale in the ocean, whaling became popular again, leaving the Northern Oceanâs Blue and Finback Whale populations in shambles. While not explicit, the book's bringing up that whales were still hunted after the creation of petroleum makes a great point against the need for whaling and poaching from this time forward.Â
1904 saw the creation of the first whaling station, making the whaling process much easier to do, with 39,000 Blue and Finback whales killed in the 1939 season alone. Because of the decimated whale populations, some that would never be able to recover to this day, seventeen nations formed the International Whaling Commission in 1946. The commission was used to regulate whaling and was the first step to stop unsustainable whale poaching. By 1971, all whaling in the United States was considered poaching, and in 1986, the Whale Commission banned all commercial whaling. This did not stop other countries like Japan, Iceland, Norway, and at the time, the Soviet Union (this is outdated and no longer true), who did not sign the ban, from Whaling.
Whaling Days promotes programs like Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Federation towards the end of the book. These organizations work to save whales and prevent countries like Japan from poaching them.Â
The woodcuts initially drew me to pick up and read the book. Not only are they beautiful, but they very accurately depict what the book is referencing on each page. While some are a bit gory and violent, they are not overdone to the point I think an older Elementary Schooler couldnât handle them. The content in the writing itself could also be considered a little mature as it discusses killing animals and the different weapons used to hunt them.Â
The end of the book contains a page of whaling terms that make anything difficult to understand easily digestible. The author also provides a Selected Bibliography containing books for adults and children and other noteworthy resources like articles and legal documents.Â
