Augusto Ivan de Freitas Pinheiro and Eliane Canedo
Research and contributions: Cristiane Titoneli
Whale hunting
The waters of the Guanabara Bay were certainly a major attraction during the tropical winter months between June and August. They were even more appealing to whales, migrating from the northern hemisphere to below the Equator in their thousands, year after year in search of somewhere close to paradise where they could breed and raise their calves. However, they became the target of adventurers drawn here by the same wish to find a bountiful paradise. The outcome was better for these men, who introduced an activity into Brazilian waters with which they were very familiar: hunting for these huge cetaceans.
According to Marcelo de Oliveira Paz:5
(...) The two main products of commercial interest processed from cetaceans were whale oil, commonly known as fish oil, and whalebone, which was found in baleen whales belonging to the numerous Mysticeti suborder. However, during the first quarter of the XVIII century, the whaling universe saw a new vendetta appear: hunting sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus). Toothed and growing to a large size, this animal had a psychological profile that differed from those of other species. At times it could become extremely aggressive, which was the characteristic that prompted Moby Dick author Herman Melville to associate it with the biblical Leviathan. Once the battle was won against these marine monsters, their huge bodies became treasure chests of useful products.
Good use was made of every part of the whale: bones, fins, meat, blubber, spermaceti and even the valuable ambergris: a solid, fatty and inflammable substance produced in sperm whale intestines that was processed into a precious fixative for the finest perfumes. These were the sources of cooking oil, meat, candles, corset bones, caulking for boat hulls, mortar for civil construction, oil for lamps, and remedies for rheumatism and skin diseases.
In the early days, work logistics were rudimentary: once harpooned, the dead whale’s body was often hauled aboard and chopped up on the boat, turned into sub-products that would be shipped to commercial destinations. However, the most usual system was to tow caught cetaceans to rough-built whaling stations, where their huge bodies were turned into countless sub-products that were consumed locally or shipped out to overseas markets through the Port of Rio. The best-known whaling stations along the Rio de Janeiro State coast were located in the towns of Búzios, São Domingos in Niterói, and on Ilha Grande island in Angra dos Reis.
One of the first economic activities in the city of Rio de Janeiro, whale hunting was introduced into Brazil in 1615. It peaked during the early 1770s and tapered off as the decade drew to a close. Although operations continued until the Crown monopoly ended in 1801, this decline was due to competition with other countries, as well as hurdles raised by the monopoly that blunted the competitive edge of these activities. As a side note, it is interesting to note that rod fishing is still called ‘sedentary fishing’ in Brazil, limited to the shoreline and the Guanabara Bay.6
