In the 19th century, the great advanture of whaling captured the American imagination; men in wooden ships risked and somethimes lost their lives stalking the leviathan with hand-held harpoons. Yet, even then the whales generally fell easy prey to their resourceful hunters. The advent of modern, highly mechanized whaling fleets with cannon-fired explosive harpoons has reduced the contest to an efficient slaughter. Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton, announcing a ban on the importation of whale products and the end of all United States whaling operations in December 1971, echoed growing concern for the hardpressed species:

It is clear that time is running out for the whales. . . . As long as man views these magnificent creatures as solely an economic product, we are in grave danger of destroying the complex web of life of which man is an inextricable part.