Whale oil

Whale oil is the oil obtained from the blubber of various species of whales of the genus Balaena, such as B. mysticetus, Greenland or Right Whale (Northern whale-oil), B. australis (southern whale-oil), Balaenoptera longimana, Balaenoptera borealis (Fin oil, Finner whale-oil, Humpback oil). The Orca and the Beluga also yield whale-oils. Train-oil proper is the northernwhale-oil, but this term has been applied to all blubber oils, and in Germany, to all marine animal oils: fish-oils, liver oils, and blubber oils. The most important whale-oil is sperm or spermaceti oil, yielded by the Sperm Whales.

Whale-oil varies in colour from a bright honey yellow to a dark brown, according to the condition of the blubber from which it has been extracted. Stearin and spermaceti may be separated from whale oil at low temperatures; at under 0°C these constituents may be almost completely crystallized and filtered out. When removed and pressed, this deposit is known as whale tallow, and the oil from which it is removed is known as pressed whale-oil; yet is sometimes passed as sperm-oil.

The first principal use of whale oil was as an illuminant in lamps and as candle wax. Whale-oil later came to be used in oiling wools for combing and other uses. It was the first of any animal or mineral oil to achieve commercial viability.

However, with the 1986 International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling, whale oil has all but ceased to be viable, as substitutes have been found for most of the uses of whale oil, most notably jojoba oil.

See also

• Oleochemical