A lemmer is the person who dismembers a whale separating the meat, flippers, and bones in the butchering process after it has been stripped of

blubber Blubber is a thick layer of vascularized adipose tissue under the skin of all cetaceans, pinnipeds, penguins, and sirenians. Description Lipid-rich, collagen fiber-laced blubber comprises the hypodermis and covers the whole body, except for pa ...

by a

flenser Flensing is the removing of the blubber or outer integument of whales, separating it from the animal's meat. Processing the blubber (the subcutaneous fat) into whale oil was the key step that transformed a whale carcass into a stable, transport ...

. The lemmer removes the meat from the bones so it can be boiled to remove the

whale oil Whale oil is oil obtained from the blubber of whales. Whale oil from the bowhead whale was sometimes known as train oil, which comes from the Dutch word ''traan'' ("tears, tear" or "drop"). Sperm oil, a special kind of oil obtained from the ...

. The word lemmer is from the

Norwegian language Norwegian ( no, norsk, links=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regio ...

word ''lemme'', meaning dismember. On boats, the lemmer men separated the meat from the bones on the lemmer deck where the carcass was pulled.

References

{{Reflist Whaling implements Whaling in Antarctica