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It would seem that establishing a whaling outpost in the wilds of Antarctica could only be the last resort of desperate men. But after the exploitation of whaling in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, whalers expanded their search at the turn of the century for the last remaining opportunities on earth — a path that led thousands of miles south to the bottom of the world. At whaling stations in places like Port Leith, Whales Bay, and Grytviken on the British Island of South Georgia, whalers slaughtered and processed whales on an almost unimaginable scale. Down the line, the largest, most magnificent whales were hunted. And when those numbers dwindled, the whalers moved to the next available species. blue, fin, sei, humpback, sperm, and then minke whales were targeted in the hunt for profits by commercial whalers. Finally, inevitably, the industry crashed under the weight of its own greed.
Now, all that remains in the once bustling Antarctic ports are the abandoned relics of an industry that brought many of the world’s largest animal species to the brink of extinction. Rotting ships lie askew, their harpoon guns still intact. The villages of workers that once processed the whales have tumbled in upon themselves. At the Grytviken station, alone, more than 53,000 whales were slaughtered in the period between 1904 and 1966. Grytviken was the standard of technological efficiency for its time, but even its contribution to the whale slaughter was a token
PHOTOS BY: WYLAND
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