 Commercial whaling was historically important as an industry well throughout the 17th , 18th and 19th centuries . Whaling was at that time a sizeable European industry with ships from Britain , France , Spain , Denmark , the Netherlands and Germany , sometimes collaborating to hunt whales in the Arctic , sometimes in competition leading even to war . By the early 1790s , whalers , namely the Americans and Australians , mainly focused efforts in the South Pacific where they mainly hunted sperm whales and right whales , with catches of up to 39 @,@ 000 right whales by Americans alone . By 1853 , U.S. profits turned to US $ 11 @,@ 000 @,@ 000 ( UK £ 6.5m ) , equivalent to US $ 348 @,@ 000 @,@ 000 ( UK £ 230m ) today , the most profitable year for the American whaling industry . Commonly exploited species included North Atlantic right whales , sperm whales , which were mainly hunted by Americans , bowhead whales , which were mainly hunted by the Dutch , common minke whales , blue whales , and gray whales . The scale of whale harvesting decreased substantially after 1982 when the International Whaling Commission ( IWC ) placed a moratorium which set a catch limit for each country , excluding aboriginal groups until 2004 . 
