to the Cofradia (brotherhood) of San Pedro. Cultural significance The trade had reached such importance in the Basque provinces during this time that several towns and villages depicted whales or whaling scenes on their seals and coat-of-arms. This practice included Bermeo (dated 1351), Castro Urdiales (currently outside the Basque region), Hondarribia (1297), Getaria, Lekeitio, Mutriku (1507, 1562), and Ondarroa in Spain; and Biarritz, Guéthary, and Hendaye in France. Whaling was important enough that laws were passed in 1521 and 1530, barring foreign (re. French) whalers from operating off the Spanish coast, while in 1619 and 1649, foreign whale products could not be sold in Spanish markets. Peak and decline The industry in the French Basque region never reached the importance it did in the Spanish provinces. Few towns participated and only a small number of whales were probably taken. From the number of extant documents and written references Aguilar (1986) surmised that French Basque whaling peaked in the second half of the 13th century, and subsequently declined. Although whaling as a commercial activity had ended by 1567, some right whales were taken as late as 1688. For the Spanish Basque region (Biscay and Gipuzkoa) the peak was reached in the second half of the 16th century, but as early as the end of the same century it was in decline. Subsequently, an increase in whaling activity appears to have occurred in Cantabria, Asturias, and Galicia in the first half of the 17th century. Here the Basques hired seasonal "land factories" (whaling stations), particularly in Galicia – the Galicians themselves were never whalers but only built these installations so they could rent them out on an annual basis to the Basques. The peak was short-lived. By the second half of the 17th century whaling in these areas was in general decline. The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14) sounded the death knell for whaling in the Bay of Biscay, with the trade ceasing altogether in Cantabria (1720), Asturias (1722), and Galicia (1720). It only continued in the Spanish Basque region, where it barely survived. Catch The total number of right whales taken by the Basques in the Bay of Biscay is unknown, as serial catch statistics weren't compiled until the 16th century. Incomplete catch statistics for Lekeitio from 1517 to 1662 show a total catch of 68 whales, an average of two-and-a-half a year. The most were caught in 1536 and