The Jan Mayen whaling industry - Its exploitation of the Greenland right whale and its impact on the marine ecosystem
After a relatively late discovery of the island, Dutch whalers used Jan Mayen as a base for their whaling industry. They built stations on the west coast of the island where they rendered whale oil from the blubber of the Greenland right whales. Altogether the whalers stayed for twenty-two years on...
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| Format: | Other Non-Article Part of Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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Springer
2004
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/11370/3e8d608f-1806-4474-aeb3-86e67777fd12 https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/the-jan-mayen-whaling-industry--its-exploitation-of-the-greenland-right-whale-and-its-impact-on-the-marine-ecosystem(3e8d608f-1806-4474-aeb3-86e67777fd12).html |
| Summary: | After a relatively late discovery of the island, Dutch whalers used Jan Mayen as a base for their whaling industry. They built stations on the west coast of the island where they rendered whale oil from the blubber of the Greenland right whales. Altogether the whalers stayed for twenty-two years on Jan Mayen. In this period, approximately 1000 Greenland right whales (Balaena mysticetus) were killed and processed on the island leaving much uneaten plankton behind in the sea. Plankton-eating birds must have taken advantage of the situation and it is likely that the number of seabird rookeries on Jan Mayen increased. The combination of written sources and field data makes Jan Mayen a very challenging island for research. |
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