First whale loss blow
- Lekeitio and Ondarroa, 11 March 1623. The fishermen's brotherhoods of both countries signed an agreement to share the whale caught together.
Tensions between the peoples of the Basque coast were very frequent, but peoples increasingly joined together to facilitate whaling and profit, albeit divided. In fact, 400 years ago things were changing: Basque fishermen, who for centuries had been leaders and pioneers in whaling, were losing that dominance, especially in favour of English and Dutch fishermen. The enemy was not in the neighboring town, but abroad.
At the beginning of the following century, in the Utretch Treaty of 1713, the Basques lost all their rights to work in Newfoundland. Yet, despite the continued increase in the number of whales hunted, populations of whales, particularly eubalaena glacialis or Basque whale, were not at risk. In the 19th century industrialization was going to push for loss. On the one hand, the steamboat and, in particular, the mechanical wall greatly facilitated whaling. But, above all, the demand for newborn industries was the main cause of the killing, as many machines needed whale oil to work. One of the main drivers of industrialization was the whales killed the railroad; whale oil was also called train oil.
Did fishing bring the whale closer and closer to the Gulf of Bizkaia or did the Basque whales want to catch it more and more?
By then the Basque fishermen were already out of business, so it could be thought that they had no direct responsibility for the destruction of whales.
Humans began exploiting whales, taking advantage of deteriorated whales, and hunting those approaching the coast. The Basques began this way, but in the 14th and 15th centuries they had to go further and further in their search. It is difficult to calculate whale populations of the time and the number of whales captured. Did fishing bring the whale closer and closer to the Gulf of Bizkaia or did the Basque whales want to catch it more and more? Until then, whales were captured for domestic consumption, but Basques pushed the trade in whale products further. With huge profits, they started the whaling industry.
Thus, Basque whales are responsible for the business culture that established the dead whale only for its quantity. Others would put whales in serious danger of extinction, but the Basques provided them with tools to do so.
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