In the final episode of our whale series, we learn about fecal plumes, shipping noise, and why Moby-Dick is still worth reading. (Part 3 of "Everything You Never Knew About Whaling.")

• SOURCES:
  • Michele Baggio, professor of economics at the University of Connecticut.
  • Mary K. Bercaw-Edwards, professor of maritime English at the University of Connecticut and lead foreman at the Mystic Seaport Museum.
  • Hester Blum, professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis.
  • Eric Hilt, professor of economics at Wellesley College.
  • Kate O’Connell, senior policy consultant for the marine life program at the Animal Welfare Institute.
  • Maria Petrillo, director of interpretation at the Mystic Seaport Museum.
  • Joe Roman, fellow and writer-in-residence at the Gund Institute for Environment, University of Vermont.

• RESOURCES:
  • Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World, by Joe Roman (2023).
  • “Racial Diversity and Team Performance: Evidence from the American Offshore Whaling Industry,” by Michele Baggio and Metin M. Cosgel (S.S.R.N., 2023).
  • “Why 23 Dead Whales Have Washed Up on the East Coast Since December,” by Tracey Tully and Winston Choi-Schagrin (The New York Times, 2023).
  • “Suspected Russia-Trained Spy Whale Reappears Off Sweden’s Coast,” by A.F.P. in Stockholm (The Guardian, 2023).
  • “International Trade, Noise Pollution, and Killer Whales,” by M. Scott Taylor and Fruzsina Mayer (N.B.E.R. Working Paper, 2023).
  • “World-First Map Exposes Growing Dangers Along Whale Superhighways,” by the World Wildlife Fund (2022).
  • “Lifting Baselines to Address the Consequences of Conservation Success,” by Joe Roman, Meagan M. Dunphy-Daly, David W. Johnston, and Andrew J. Read (Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2015).
  • “Wages, Risk, and Profits in the Whaling Industry,” by Elmo P. Hohman (The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1926).
  • Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville (1851).

• EXTRAS:
  • “Why Do People Still Hunt Whales? (Update)” by Freakonomics Radio (2025).
  • “How Much Does Discrimination Hurt the Economy?” by Freakonomics Radio (2021).

For years, whale oil was used as lighting fuel, industrial lubricant, and the main ingredient in (yum!) margarine. Whale meat was also on a few menus. But today, demand for whale products is at a historic low. And yet some countries still have a whaling industry. We find out why. (Part 2 of “Everything You Never Knew About Whaling.”)

• SOURCES:
  • Jay Alabaster, doctoral student at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.
  • Bjorn Basberg, professor emeritus of economic history at the Norwegian School of Economics.
  • Eric Hilt, professor of economics at Wellesley College.
  • Kate O’Connell, senior policy consultant for the marine life program at the Animal Welfare Institute.
  • Paul Watson, environmental activist and founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

• RESOURCES:
  • “The Soviet Union Killed an Appalling Number of Whales. I Wanted to Know Why,” by Ryan Tucker Jones (Slate, 2022).
  • “Behind the Smile: The Multi-Billion Dollar Dolphin Entertainment Industry,” by World Animal Protection (2019).
  • “Japan to Resume Commercial Whaling, Defying International Ban,” by Daniel Victor (The New York Times, 2018).
  • “Why Is There Not More Outrage About Japan’s Barbaric Practice of Whaling?” by Boris Johnson (The Telegraph, 2018).
  • “Margarine Once Contained a Whole Lot More Whale,” by Sarah Laskow (Gastro Obscura, 2017).
  • “3 Million Whales Were Killed in the 20th Century: Report,” (N.B.C. News, 2015).
  • “The Spectacular Rise and Fall of U.S. Whaling: An Innovation Story,” by Derek Thompson (The Atlantic, 2012).
  • In Pursuit of Leviathan: Technology, Institutions, Productivity, and Profits in American Whaling, 1816-1906, by Lance E. Davis, Robert E. Gallman, and Karin Gleiter (1997).
  • “Norway Is Planning to Resume Whaling Despite World Ban,” by Craig R. Whitney (The New York Times, 1992).

• EXTRAS:
  • “The First Great American Industry,” by Freakonomics Radio (2023).

Whaling was, in the words of one scholar, “early capitalism unleashed on the high seas.” How did the U.S. come to dominate the whale market? Why did whale hunting die out here — and continue to grow elsewhere? And is that whale vomit in your perfume? (Part 1 of “Everything You Never Knew About Whaling.”)

• SOURCES:
  • Eric Hilt, professor of economics at Wellesley College.
  • Nathaniel Philbrick, writer and historian.
  • Paul Watson, environmental activist and founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

• RESOURCES:
  • “Calls From the Deep: Do We Need to Save the Whales All Over Again?” by Sophy Grimshaw (The Guardian, 2020).
  • “The Very Small World of V.C.,” by Avi Asher-Schapiro (The New Republic, 2019).
  • “How Nantucket Came to Be the Whaling Capital of the World,” by Nathaniel Philbrick (Smithsonian Magazine, 2015).
  • “Fin-tech,” (The Economist, 2015).
  • “The Spectacular Rise and Fall of U.S. Whaling: An Innovation Story,” by Derek Thompson (The Atlantic, 2012).
  • Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America, by Eric Jay Dolin (2007).
  • “Incentives in Corporations: Evidence from the American Whaling Industry,” by Eric Hilt (NBER Working Papers, 2004).
  • In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick (2000).
  • “Productivity in American Whaling: The new Bedford Fleet in the Nineteenth Century,” by Lance Davis, Robert Galiman, and Teresa Hutchins (NBER Working Paper, 1987).

• EXTRAS:
  • “Is Venture Capital the Secret Sauce of the American Economy?” by Freakonomics Radio (2021).
  • “Is the Future of Farming in the Ocean?” by Freakonomics Radio (2021).