Whale Meat bag

This item is a memento of the final phase of commercial whaling in New Zealand. The Perano Brothers operated the last New Zealand whaling stations from their bases in Tory Channel. From 1957, trading as 'Whekenui By-Products', they sold whale meat, oil and bone to local and international customers. The meat was sold for both human and animal consumption, and marketed as a cheap alternative to beef and mutton. The bag symbolises the general acceptance by New Zealanders as late as the early 1960s of commercial whaling, in direct contrast to the almost unanimous opposition to whaling of present-day New Zealanders.