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Blandford Whaling Station, 1964-1972
The Blandford Whaling Station was established in 1964 by Karl Karlson. Karlson came from Aalesund, a small fishing community on the west coast of Norway.
The Karlson plant initially concentrated on seals; however, the abundance of whales in the area prompted Karlson to expand the operation to include the processing of whales. This worked well, complementing the sealing season.
After the whales had been passed to the shore operation by the whaling ships they were towed to the slipway and pulled tail-first up the slip onto the apron. The blubber was removed in long strips, several feet across and twenty feet long, using flensing knives. The blubber was then rendered to oil and the meat cut into manageable sizes and frozen.
The oil could be used in margarine, shortening, soap, cosmetics, and sperm whale oil in high quality lubricants. The meat, 30% of the animal's weight, initially was used exclusively for pet food, but its importance for human consumption rose rapidly.
On December 20, 1972, Federal Fisheries Minister Davis announced a total ban on whaling. This decision came as a complete shock to the community as Karlson's 1973 quota had been allotted, and Canada had voted against a moratorium earlier that year.
Contributed by Alfreda Withrow
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