<P> Soon , blue whales were being hunted off Iceland ( 1883 ) , the Faroe Islands ( 1894 ) , Newfoundland ( 1898 ) , and Spitsbergen ( 1903 ) . In 1904 -- 05 the first blue whales were taken off South Georgia . By 1925 , with the advent of the stern slipway in factory ships and the use of steam - driven whale catchers , the catch of blue whales , and baleen whales as a whole , in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic began to increase dramatically . In the 1930 -- 31 season , these ships caught 29,400 blue whales in the Antarctic alone . By the end of World War II , populations had been significantly depleted , and , in 1946 , the first quotas restricting international trade in whales were introduced , but they were ineffective because of the lack of differentiation between species . Rare species could be hunted on an equal footing with those found in relative abundance . </P>
<P> Soon , blue whales were being hunted off Iceland ( 1883 ) , the Faroe Islands ( 1894 ) , Newfoundland ( 1898 ) , and Spitsbergen ( 1903 ) . In 1904 -- 05 the first blue whales were taken off South Georgia . By 1925 , with the advent of the stern slipway in factory ships and the use of steam - driven whale catchers , the catch of blue whales , and baleen whales as a whole , in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic began to increase dramatically . In the 1930 -- 31 season , these ships caught 29,400 blue whales in the Antarctic alone . By the end of World War II , populations had been significantly depleted , and , in 1946 , the first quotas restricting international trade in whales were introduced , but they were ineffective because of the lack of differentiation between species . Rare species could be hunted on an equal footing with those found in relative abundance . </P>
where is the main hunting ground for blue whales located
where is the main hunting ground for blue whales located
the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic
the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic