Antarctica

• seals


  1775: 13,000 skins sold in China

  1791: 102 vessels involved

  1798: 100,000 skins sold in Canton from one vessel

  1775-1900: 25,000,000 fur seals taken for skins

  by 1900 effectively wiped out

  Antarctic fur seal actually thought to be extinct
• southern sea elephant targeted for its oil. millions taken for boiling down for oil and hunted nearly to extinction
• whales were cut up beside the ship and there were so many whales that only the blubber was taken and the remainder allowed to float away
• whaling was the reason for the first colonisation of the Antarctic continent
• whaling


  total kill estimated at 1,500,000

  • started in 1904
  • 1912 - 11,000 killed
  • 1937 - 46,000 killed (9000 immature)
  • 1965 - industry effectively ends due to overexploitation