Today, we spent time in Grytviken, once a hub of industrial whaling. If this were a typical live blog, I might tell you about what I ate, the layers of gear I put on, or the experience of stepping into the Zodiac. But not today.
Instead, this post is for the 175,000 whales that were killed here—Blue, Fin, Humpback, Sei, and Sperm whales, slaughtered to fuel an industry that once seemed indispensable.
Before petroleum replaced whale oil, nearly every part of these magnificent creatures was used: their oil illuminated homes and powered machinery, their bones became fertilizer, their flesh turned into animal feed, and their byproducts found their way into soap, detergent, margarine, even cooking fat. Nothing was wasted, yet everything was lost.
Grytviken is silent now, its rusting machinery a monument to an era that valued whales as mere commodities. But whaling has not ended. Today, only three countries—Japan, Norway, and Iceland—continue commercial whaling, defying the international moratorium.
In a few days, when we have time at sea, I’ll share photographs of Grytviken and more reflections on this place. For now, I sit with the weight of history and the ghosts of the Southern Ocean.
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