Indigenous peoples and  and early settlers relied on whale for food and industry. In the early 1500's, the Basques had fishing stations in Labrador and the Straights of Belle Isle area. The Basques would harvest whales. They would refine the blubber into whale oil and export it to Iberia.

Whaling continued, in Newfoundland, until the 1960's.

The Terra Nova Greens oppose all whale hunting and whale harvesting because the association believes that certain whale species are on the verge of extinction while the average  world whale population is at about 3% of what a healthy world whale population should be.