After a break, filled by singing and story telling, the whaling crews begin to distribute the catch to each family who attends the event.

Inupiat whaling crews here recently took three 30-ton bowhead whales from the Arctic Ocean, providing enough meat for everyone in the village for the coming year.

Anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd said whaling crew used grappling hooks and a bamboo pole to strike the activists.

"Another popular category included illustrations of the exploits and disasters of American whaling crews in faraway seas."

In 1841 he joined a whaling crew bound for the South Pacific where the vessel was shipwrecked.

For many whaling crews the season effectively ended on July 1, when processing facilities announced that they would take no more whale meat.

During the 1800s, Alfhild/Awilda was a popular subject for scrimshaw carved by members of whaling crews.

At the age of 20 he joined a whaling crew, working on a schooner owned by Captain Bangs.

For seven years, beginning in 1867, he was member of a whaling crew on the Spitsbergen and Murman coasts.

Though he considered the whaling crew to be honest, wholesome men, such a stockpile would tempt even the best of them.