Terrible with white bone beach

Spitsbergen Island is the largest island and is also the only place in Norway's Svalbard archipelago. It used to be the center of Beluga whale hunting for hundreds of years from the 17th century until the 1960s.

The consequences of large-scale slaughter from hundreds of years ago now appear in piles of white-covered bones along the beach. About 30km of the west coast of the island, which was formerly hunting stations, is now a macabre open-air museum.

Thousands of Beluga whale skeletons poured into piles on the sandy beach help us visualize some of the horrific massacre that took place here.

Beluga is a very beautiful medium sized whale, mainly living in Arctic waters. Their name comes from bright white skin, 'beluga' originating from Russian means ' white ' .

For centuries, this gentle animal was hunted by humans for meat, fat and skin. They are easy prey for hunters due to the habit of concentrating in estuaries during the summer months.

Within a few hundred years of intense hunting, Beluga whales from very popular places in the Arctic waters have become threatened species. National governments in the Beluga whale area have urgently taken measures to protect the animal, including banning industrial fishing.

Beluga whales or white whales are famous for being intelligent and extremely cute animals, they also appear in folklore of the Arctic peoples. Traces on the island are now maintained by the Norwegian government as an open-air museum, to remind people of the frightening consequences of uncontrolled nature exploitation.