The right whale of the North Atlantic (Eubalaena glacialis) is also called "whale of Biscay" or "whale of the Basques", due to the Basque fishermen who in the 15th century, in the Bay of Biscay, systematically attacked it when it came approached the coast to breed. In Biarritz, Bidart, Guéthary or Saint-Jean-de-Luz, this whaling is developing, as it is beneficial for everyone. To catch cetaceans, scouts patrolled aboard a small boat called a txalupa (Basque boat). The skippers of the txalupas, each of which usually carried six oarsmen and a harpooner, ordered their crew to row quickly, but discreetly, towards the cetaceans which came to the surface or which had fallen asleep.
The Basques drove it further and further out to sea because of its richness in oil and its long baleen. Thus treated, the slow right whale had almost entirely disappeared a century later, and it owed its survival paradoxically only to its rarity.

Acrylic and Posca paint on varnished teak wood