The bulk of the whaling was carried out from South Georgia in the Southern Ocean from the land whaling stations including, Grytviken, Husvik, Stromness, Leith Harbour and Prince Olaf Harbour. The first station was started at Grytviken by C A Larsen who helped to form the company called Company De Pesca In 1904. The other stations followed by various whaling companies including Christian Salvesen.

In these early days the whale catcher vessels virtually caught the whales on their doorstep as they were in such abundance but through time and over fishing the vessels had to travel much further afield. Also in these early days the complete use of the whale was not carried out and after only the blubber was removed the 'Skrott' (carcass) was allowed to float away hence the large number of whale skeletons on the surrounding beaches.

Salvesen was one of the pioneers in the complete utilization of the whole carcass of the whale, with little or no waste. The principal whales that were hunted from South Georgia were the Humpback, Blue, and Fin Whales. Sperm whales were also hunted but in these latitudes the Sperm Whales were all large males. Again due to over fishing the whale catcher vessels had to go further a field to hunt the whales and at this time the advent of pelagic whaling was really getting underway. Pelagic whaling is carried out on the open sea by large factory vessels, which could process the whale and had attendant whale catching vessels with them. In the early days of pelagic whaling the flensing of the whale was done along side the factory ship and this had to be carried out in sheltered waters i.e.: Deception Island, which was one of the most popular sites for the flensing operation.