19th-Century Weapon Found in Whale

[onedomino]

This is amazing. I knew whales could get pretty old, but not this old.

19th-Century Weapon Found in Whale
By Erin Conroy
Associated Press

Complete article: http://news.originalsignal.com/article/356896/19th-century-weapon-found-in-whale.html

BOSTON - A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt — more than a century ago. Embedded deep under its blubber was a 3 1/2-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers insight into the whale's age, estimated between 115 and 130 years old.
"No other finding has been this precise," said John Bockstoce, an adjunct curator of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Calculating a whale's age can be difficult, and is usually gauged by amino acids in the eye lenses. It's rare to find one that has lived more than a century, but experts say the oldest were close to 200 years old.

See: http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/nmml/CetaceanAssessment/bowhead/bmsos.htm

Some issues concerning the hunting of whales described by the Anchorage Daily News: http://www.adn.com/money/industries/fishing/story/8931716p-8831950c.html

 

[Gunny]

This is amazing. I knew whales could get pretty old, but not this old.

See: http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/nmml/CetaceanAssessment/bowhead/bmsos.htm

Some issues concerning the hunting of whales described by the Anchorage Daily News: http://www.adn.com/money/industries/fishing/story/8931716p-8831950c.html

Good thing they finally killed it.