Romans had whaling industry, archaeological excavation suggests

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Ancient whale bones have been found on three Roman fish processing sites close to the Strait of Gibraltar
Ancient bones found around the Strait of Gibraltar suggest that the Romans might have had a thriving whaling industry, researchers have claimed.
The bones, dating to the first few centuries AD or earlier, belong to grey whales and North Atlantic right whales – coastal migratory species that are no longer found in European waters.
Researchers say this not only suggests these whales might have been common around the entrance to the Mediterranean in Roman times, but that Romans might have hunted them.
They add that Romans would not have had the technology to hunt whale species found in the region today - sperm or fin whales which live further out at sea - meaning evidence of whaling might not have been something archaeologists and historians were looking out for.
“It’s the coastal [species] that makes all the difference,” said Dr Ana Rodrigues, first author of the research from the Functional and Evolutionary Ecology Centre, CEFE, in France.

The right whale was once widespread in the North Atlantic, with breeding grounds off the northern coast of Spain and north west Africa, but was hunted by Medieval Basque whalers among others, and are now only found in the Western North Atlantic. Grey whales disappeared from the North Atlantic some time in the 18th century, and are now only found in the Pacific.
Until the recent discoveries it was unclear whether the whales’ habitat had ever included the Mediterranean: the region is southerly enough for the animals to potentially calve there after feeding in more northerly areas. While there are a handful of historical reports of right whales cropping up in the Mediterranean, the only reliable grey whale sighting in the region was in 2010 and is thought to have been a misguided individual that turned up from the Pacific.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jul/11/romans-had-whale-industry-archeological-excavation-suggests

 

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And related story from other sites:

Scientists have questioned the credibility of Pliny the Elder's now 2,000-year-old account of orcas hunting whale calves near the Strait ofGibraltar,since those marine mammals aren't known to visit that area. Now, archaeological evidence suggests Pliny knew exactly what he was talking about.
Researchers discovered whale bones from the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) and the Atlantic gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) within the ruins of an ancient Roman fish-processing facility located along the Strait of Gibraltar. The discovery was published today (July 10) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
In the first century A.D., Pliny the Elder famously wrote about orcas (also called killer whales, though they are in the dolphin family) attacking whales and their calves in the Bay of Cádiz, near the Strait of Gibraltar— the entry point from the Atlantic Ocean into the Mediterranean that lies between Africa and Europe. According to Callum Roberts in "The Unnatural History of the Sea" (Island Press, 2008), Pliny described how whales "during the summer periods hide in a certain calm and spacious inlet, and take marvelous delight in breeding there." Pliny continued with a description of the brutal battles he witnessed as killer whales preyed on the mother whales and their calves. [See Stunning Photos of Whales]
But this didn't make sense to ecologists. There are very few whale species that visit the Mediterranean Sea, as outlined in a 2016 report published in the journal Advances in Marine Biology, and none of those speciesare known to use the area as a calving ground. This fact led scientists to wonder if Pliny's account was accurate, or if perhaps he was mistaking dolphins for whales.

https://www.livescience.com/63028-pliny-ancient-mediterranean-whales.html
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180711093227.htm

 

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Two thousand years ago the Mediterranean Sea was a haven for two species of whale which have since virtually disappeared from the North Atlantic, a new study analysing ancient bones suggests.

The discovery of the whale bones in the ruins of a Roman fish processing factory located at the strait of Gibraltar also hints at the possibility that the Romans may have hunted the whales.
Prior to the study, by an international team of ecologists, archaeologists and geneticists, it was assumed that the Mediterranean Sea was outside of the historical range of the right andgraywhale.
Academics from the Archaeology Department at the University of York used ancient DNA analysis and collagen fingerprinting to identify the bones as belonging to the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) and the Atlantic gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus).
After centuries of whaling, the right whale currently occurs as a very threatened population off eastern North America and thegraywhale has completely disappeared from the North Atlantic and is now restricted to the North Pacific.
Co-author of the study Dr Camilla Speller, from the University of York, said: “These new molecular methods are opening whole new windows into past ecosystems. Whales are often neglected in Archaeologicalstudies,because their bones are frequently too fragmented to be identifiable by their shape.
“Our study shows that these two species were once part of the Mediterranean marine ecosystem and probably used the sheltered basin as a calving ground.
“The findings contribute to the debate on whether, alongside catching large fish such as tuna, the Romans had a form of whaling industry or if perhaps the bones are evidence of opportunistic scavenging from beached whales along thecoast line.”
Both species of whale are migratory, and their presence east of Gibraltar is a strong indication that they previously entered the Mediterranean Sea to give birth.
The Gibraltar region was at the centre of a massive fish-processing industry during Roman times, with products exported across the entire Roman Empire. The ruins of hundreds of factories with large salting tanks can still be seen today in the region.
Lead author of the study Dr Ana Rodrigues, from the French National Centre for Scientific Research, said: “Romans did not have the necessary technology to capture the types of large whales currently found in the Mediterranean, which are high-seas species. But right andgraywhales and their calves would have come very close to shore, making them tempting targets for local fishermen.”
It is possible that both species could have been captured using small rowing boats and hand harpoons, methods used by medieval Basque whalers centuries later.
The knowledge that coastal whales were once present in the Mediterranean also sheds new light on ancient historical sources.
Anne Charpentier,lecturerat the University of Montpellier and co-author in the study, said: “We can finally understand a 1st-Century description by the famous Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder, of killer whales attacking whales and their new-born calves in the Cadiz bay.
“It doesn’t match anything that can be seen there today, but it fits perfectly with the ecology if right andgraywhales used to be present.”
The study authors are now calling for historians and archaeologists to re-examine their material in the light of the knowledge that coastal whales where once part of the Mediterranean marine ecosystem.
Dr Rodriguez added: “It seems incredible that we could have lost and then forgotten two large whale species in a region as well-studied as the Mediterranean. It makes you wonder what else we have forgotten”.
Forgotten Mediterranean calving grounds of grayand North Atlantic right whales: evidence from Roman archaeological records is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B.

The study was an international collaboration between scientists at the universities of York, Montpellier (France), Cadiz (Spain), Oviedo (Spain) and the Centre for Fishery Studies in Asturias, Spain.

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2018/07/ancient-bones-reveal-2-whale-species-lost-from-the-mediterranean-sea/120894