Dutch Whaling: At Whose Expense?

Dutch whaling began in 1612, soon enough leading to large-scale industrious whaling campaigns in Spitzbergen (modern-day Svalbard). Elsewhere in the Arctic, Indigenous communities had been practicing sustainable small-scale whaling for centuries - an integral part of their way of life.
However, as the Dutch fleets began their excessive hunt for profit in the region, the bowhead whale was soon ran into near extinction, not only a devastating fact in itself, but it also endangered Indigenous tradition.
Today, whaling is mostly prohibited due to the consequences of European exploitation, leaving Indigenous groups globally to fight for their rights to continue subsistence whaling, as their history is not taken into account.

See: Indigenous Whaling

See: European Whaling