For centuries, animal oils were essential to the economies of Europe and North America.

efore mineral oils became available as fuels and lubricants, animal oils were widely used for lighting, and in products as diverse as soap, grease, paint, drugs, pitch and leather softeners. Whales and seals were excellent sources of oil because their bodies contain a large amount of blubber.

From the Basques of the sixteenth century to the Canadians of the twentieth century, generations of sealers and whalers have searched for these valuable animals in the rich seas off our east coast.

Vast commercial enterprises employed large numbers of people and the best technology to hunt and process the original "liquid gold". Yet, when our capacity to gather nature's bounty exceeded nature's ability to sustain itself, the future of both hunters and prey was threatened.