Whaling has been known in Portugal since the 12th Century. However, the significant commercial interest of this activity began in the 19th Century and carried on through the 20th Century on the mainland and on the archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira. The purpose of this study is to conduct a global review of Portuguese whaling data and to obtain information on coastal catches of whales by the Portuguese land-based fleet during the 20th Century. Different periods of whaling can be discriminated considering the three Portuguese geographical locations but, globally, 89 years of land-based whaling in Portugal gave a total capture of 29,180 great whales. Captures included sperm, fin, humpback, sei, right and minke whales. Decline of the land-based whaling industry followed the decline of species in the exploited grounds.
