PORT JACKSON, NSW. — The whaling industry in Australia began on November 10, 1791, just three years after the First Fleet arrived on Australian shores. Samuel Enderby Jnr, born in 1756 in England, was the son of Samuel Enderby, who established the whaling and sealing firm of Samuel Enderby & Sons.
In 1791, Enderby Jnr arranged for whalers to carry convicts to Port Jackson in the Third Fleet, following reports from earlier captains of masses of whales in the southern oceans.
Thus began the whaling industry, which hunted the southern right whale virtually to extinction within just fifty years. One hundred and fifty years later, the humpback whale suffered the same fate.
It is only in more recent years that animal protection laws have allowed the whale numbers to increase. However, whales in southern waters are once again at risk from Japanese whalers who continue to flout the resolutions of the International Whaling Commission.
