Throughout the history of mankind, whales have been a source of food and oil. The food was eaten of course, but the fuels produced by catching the whales and boiling them down for oil helped light the world for many years. Their bones were also used in many ways to support human populations.
This problem has been that whales are being killed at a rate that will soon have them in danger of becoming extinct. The U.S. recently warned that the country of Iceland is harvesting too many whales. Iceland says that their whale population is sufficient to afford increased harvesting. I hope that Iceland will remember that whales are precious and treat them as such.