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In Western Civ., was whale eaten, or was whale used primarily for it's whale oil? In places where it is/was eaten does that happen sustainably? (Japan excluded

• dagw 8y ago
  In Western Civ., was whale eaten My understanding is that it used to be quite normal in Europe back when whales were plentiful and relatively easy to catch off the French and Spanish coasts. However by the end of 17th-century whale stocks there had completely collapsed due to overfishing, and it fell out of favour as food. In Europe it's really only Norway, Iceland and Greenland that continued eating whale into modern times and even there it's popularity has dropped dramatically since the 80s.
• beatgammit 8y ago
  Not exactly "Western" Civ, but Native American tribes along the west coast would hunt whales, and the Makah are still allowed to on the grounds that it's a tradition, though that's obviously limited by necessity due to whale populations (I think the can only take one each year). I think that's a pretty convincing argument that people considered whales to be food for some time.