When we ate whales for breakfast

Forty years ago, in 1986, the International Whaling Commission banned all commercial whaling. But could chemistry have ended whaling more than 100 years earlier, and saved the lives of more than 3 million whales?

Abraham Gesner is the man who should have been the hero of this story, the man who saved the whales. In 1846, when the Canadian geologist revealed his new discovery – kerosene – 8000 whales were being killed every year. Hundreds of ships sailed from ports like New Bedford in Massachusetts, US, searching for an ingredient that was essential to the industrial age.

Extracted from the blubber of dead animals in furnaces aboard whaling ships, whale oil was the fuel that lit industrial cities. While other fuels produced only a dim glow, or filled rooms with soot, whale oil burnt with a bright, smokeless flame. By the 1740s, more than 5000 whale oil lamps lit London’s streets, and Benjamin Franklin would work only by the light of sperm whale oil. But kerosene burned just as brightly, and just as cleanly. And Gesner could make it for a fraction of the cost.

In 1861, Vanity Fair published a cartoon in which a group of whales celebrated the discovery of oil. ‘Oils well that ends well’, read a banner in the background of the scene. And by 1870, kerosene had supplanted whale oil as the industrial world’s illuminant of choice. Whale oil production fell by 80%, and Gesner was on track to become both the inventor of kerosene and the man who saved the whales.

But that wasn’t what happened.

Kerosene did end the use of whale oil for lighting, but other technological developments, happening in parallel, also revolutionised whaling. New innovations enabled a huge expansion in the scope and scale of the whale fishery.

Steamships allowed whalers to travel further and at higher speeds, keeping pace with whales that would have outswum the sailing ships of earlier generations. Harpooning cannons killed even the largest of whales. And fossil-fuel powered compressors pumped air into the carcasses of whales that would otherwise have sunk.

Blue whales and fin whales, which the hunters of Gesner’s era could not catch, became routine prey, and whaling became an industrial operation. Factory ships with giant freezers and processing plants stayed at sea for months at a time, converting whales into saleable products. In the 1960s, the whaling industry butchered more than 80,000 animals in a year – ten times more than had been killed in the years around the discovery of kerosene.

Unintended consequences

Whaling didn’t end with the discovery of kerosene because other new technologies made whaling cheaper and more efficient. And as long there was still a supply of whale oil available to us, we found new uses for it.

We used it as an industrial lubricant, and we used it to make soap. But mostly, we ate it. In the early 1900s, chemists developed processes for hydrogenating unsaturated fats. For converting their double bonds into single bonds. This process transformed liquid fats, like whale oil, into solids with a butter-like consistency.

Whales were killed so they could be made into margarine. More than 3 million in total, over the 20th century. We ate them on our toast.

Whaling only actually ended when there were almost no whales left to hunt. By the second half of the 20th century, whale populations had collapsed. There were less than 100 North Atlantic right whales, and less than 5000 humpback whales. Blue whale populations had been reduced to less than 1% of their 19th century levels. The largest animal in the history of the Earth – bigger than any known dinosaur – had been hunted to the brink of extinction.

Having access to replacements will not be enough

Whales only survived because the International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling while there were still some animals left. In the 40 years since, whale numbers have recovered. Experts believe that there are 384 right whales in the North Atlantic, and 135,000 humpbacks worldwide.

Despite this success, we must pay attention to details of this story. The modern world depends on a natural resource – oil – that causes immense environmental damage. And we are looking for ways to replace it. From renewable energy to sustainable solvents and bio-derived building blocks for synthesis, we are innovating to replace oil.

But the story of the whales, and Gesner’s kerosene, tells us that having access to these replacements will not be enough. The world will still have an enormous supply of oil, and people will find reasons to use it. As scientists, we must continue to innovate, to find the technologies that will replace oil. But as citizens, we must also advocate for the governmental actions that will end the use of oil.