130 year old Spear found in the body of a Whale...

This is a disgusting practice, and should be outlawed, but that isn't the point of this thread... I was just watching a documentary on Whales and they mentioned a spear found in the body of a whale that was 130 years old.

So i decided to do a little digging on the net and the artical came up almost right away... i thought this was very interesting... this whale survived a whaling attack over 100 years ago, even a bomb that was attached to the spear... and preserved a piece of history in the process... To my supprize Biologists believe Bowhead whales can live up to 200 years, making them the single oldest living mamal on the planet!

A giant bowhead whale caught off the coast of Alaska had a harpoon point embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt ? more than a century ago.
Biologists claim the find helps prove the bowhead is the oldest living mammal on earth.
They say the 13-centimetre arrow-shaped fragment dates back to around 1880, meaning the 50-ton whale had been coasting around the freezing arctic waters since Victorian times.

Although this is older news i still wanted to post it...

Pictures of the spear

Truely incredible!

reply to post by Akragon


YES, that is incredible and fantastic! Thanks for showing this to me!!

Pour whale, I'll bet he surfaced for a breath of air and saw a F-K all big whaling boat with a rapid fire harpoon gun rushing at it then thought, "Damn, they've regrouped." Then he pooped himself and died.

i bet being a whale is boring.
2nd line

Originally posted by biggmoneyme
i bet being a whale is boring.
2nd line

Lmao!

Ye know... I was just thinking the same thing...

Being a whale is boring?

Lol??

So lets harpoon them? Give them a bit of excitement??

This article makes me sad, that this whale managed to live 130 years after humans first tried to kill it. All those sods are dead now, and this whale managed to outlive them, only for yet more inhumane creatures to kill it.

Queue "Do you eat meat, blah blah blah" rubbish...

Originally posted by Akragon

Originally posted by biggmoneyme
i bet being a whale is boring.
2nd line

Lmao!

Ye know... I was just thinking the same thing...

I take that back actually... It would be a different existance...

Imagine seeing the world through sound... And basically being able to fly.... er swim

You wouldn't have TV or the internet,

though sound travels through water way faster... so at least you got wifi


so you wouldn't be bored... or know what bordom was...

was it a white whale?
MOBY DICK AAAAARRRG

Originally posted by mainidh
Being a whale is boring?

Lol??

So lets harpoon them? Give them a bit of excitement??

This article makes me sad, that this whale managed to live 130 years after humans first tried to kill it. All those sods are dead now, and this whale managed to outlive them, only for yet more inhumane creatures to kill it.

Queue "Do you eat meat, blah blah blah" rubbish...

I ssmell a business opportunity here dudes. We could open up a ocean side Whale night club and have cute little dolphin babes sellin dat azz to the whales while we rake in the loot.

Wow unbelievable.. man that whale was HUGE, wonder how long it took to butcher the poor thing..

reply to post by Akragon


That is a very interesting spot thanks OP.

I have to say i have a lot of admiration for whalers back in the day. It was certainly a totally different scenario to todays' whalers sat in their huge factory ships. Can you imaging getting into a rowing boat in the arctic to spear a huge creature like a whale? Whatever the rights and wrongs, that takes a huge load of cajones

Interesting.

But has anyone wondered if the whale simply gobbled it up? strong currents come to mind, it could have easily drifted into the whale. Honestly, i wouldn't assume the whale was 130 years old just by the fact it had a 130 year old spearhead lodged inside.

Not saying whale's like this cannot live upto 130-200+ years.

Sometimes it's worth thinking if these people are credible enough to be able to state "yes it got attacked 130 years ago". After all you can't carbon date a healed wound.

reply to post by InsideYourMind


Well, they did state that it was imbedded in its neck, so...

I agree, poor thing survived, only to be killed later, by more modern weapons.

If anyone is interested in what a bowhead whale looks like, here ya go



Wiki

Description

The bowhead whale has a robust, dark-colored body, no dorsal fin and a strongly bowed lower jaw and narrow upper jaw. Its baleen, the longest of any whale at 3 m (9.8 ft), strains tiny prey from the water. The whale has a massive bony skull which it uses to break through the Arctic ice to breathe. Inuit hunters have reported them surfacing through 60 cm (24 in) of ice. The bowhead may reach up to 20 m (66 ft). The largest yet reported was 21.2 m (70 ft) m for an unweighed giant caught off Spitsbergen, Norway.[8] Females are larger than males. Its blubber is the thickest of any animal, averaging 43–50 cm (17–20 in).

Life history





Skeleton of a bowhead whale
The bowhead is social and nonaggressive, and retreats under the ice when threatened.

Swimming

The bowhead is a slow swimmer and usually travels alone or in small herds of up to six. Though it may remain submerged as long as 40 minutes in a single dive, it is not thought to be a deep diver.

The whales' behavior can also include breaching, tail slapping, and spyhopping.

Vocalizations

The bowhead whale is highly vocal, and uses underwater sounds to communicate while traveling, feeding, and socializing. Some bowheads make long repetitive songs that may be mating calls.

Lifespan

Bowheads were once thought to live 60 to 70 years, similar to other whales. However, discoveries of 19th century ivory, slate, and jade spear points in freshly killed whales in 1993, 1995, 1999, and 2007[10] triggered research based on structures in the whale's eye, suggesting at least some individuals reached 150–200 years old (another report claimed a 90 year old female was still fertile).[11] The amino acid racemization process has provided the scientific basis for these claims. This process is controversial and has failed to correlate well with other dating methods.[12]

In May 2007, a 50 tonnes (49 long tons; 55 short tons) specimen caught off the Alaskan coast was discovered with the head of an explosive harpoon embedded deep under its neck blubber. The 3.5 inches (89 mm) arrow-shaped projectile was manufactured in New Bedford, Massachusetts, a major whaling center, around 1890, suggesting the animal may have survived a similar hunt more than a century ago.[13][14][15]

And whats to say that just because the whale had a 130 y/o spear stuck in it, that its 130y/o?
I have a 50 y/o rake in the garage and if I was killed with it today does that make me 50y/o? No it makes me a very unlucky 28y/o.

Not saying the whale ISNT 130 years old, just saying there are more than one explanation.

Sweet story Akragon S&F

Originally posted by InsideYourMind
Interesting.

But has anyone wondered if the whale simply gobbled it up? strong currents come to mind, it could have easily drifted into the whale. Honestly, i wouldn't assume the whale was 130 years old just by the fact it had a 130 year old spearhead lodged inside.

Not saying whale's like this cannot live upto 130-200+ years.

Sometimes it's worth thinking if these people are credible enough to be able to state "yes it got attacked 130 years ago". After all you can't carbon date a healed wound.

According to the article it was imbedded in the whale neck, not in its mouth or stomach. You're right you cant carbon date a wound, but you could probably date a spear head, if not through actual laboratory tests then simply by the shape and from of it.

It is far more likely the spear has been in the whales neck for 130 years than someone specially made a spear head similar to ones made 130 years ago and then speared a whale on the off chance biologists would find it and then claim the whale is 200+ years old; or that the whale somehow found an old spear head on the ocean floor and rammed its head against it so hard it stuck.

Originally posted by 1littlewolf
Sweet story Akragon S&F

Originally posted by InsideYourMind
Interesting.

But has anyone wondered if the whale simply gobbled it up? strong currents come to mind, it could have easily drifted into the whale. Honestly, i wouldn't assume the whale was 130 years old just by the fact it had a 130 year old spearhead lodged inside.

Not saying whale's like this cannot live upto 130-200+ years.

Sometimes it's worth thinking if these people are credible enough to be able to state "yes it got attacked 130 years ago". After all you can't carbon date a healed wound.

According to the article it was imbedded in the whale neck, not in its mouth or stomach. You're right you cant carbon date a wound, but you could probably date a spear head, if not through actual laboratory tests then simply by the shape and from of it.

It is far more likely the spear has been in the whales neck for 130 years than someone specially made a spear head similar to ones made 130 years ago and then speared a whale on the off chance biologists would find it and then claim the whale is 200+ years old; or that the whale somehow found an old spear head on the ocean floor and rammed its head against it so hard it stuck.

But whos to say someone 30 years ago used a 100 year old spear to try and get him some whale? Just because the tool is a 100 y/o doesnt mean that the event happened 100 years ago. I have some automotive tools at my house that have been passed down some over 40 years old. And lets say I used said tool to work on a 2012 Camaro and then lost the tool somewhere in the framework of the vehicle. then 5 years down the road someone finds the tool and dates it back to 1973, does that mean that the 2012 Camaro infront of him is actually a time machine? NO it means I used an old tool on a new car.

Like I said before, Im not disputing that the whale could very well be 100+ years old. Im just sayin that just because a 100+ y/o tool was found does not mean it happened 100+ years ago

So the biologist claim that this discovery helps them to prove that these whales are the longest living animals absolutly holds no water. No if we could tell how old the wound itself is, then THAT would validate their claim. The tools age holds no relevance on how old the incident is.

reply to post by Talltexxxan


seriously your talking total garbage............

Let me guess.. They used "carbon dating" to tell.

LMAO

I had no idea Whales lived so long. It's amazing, and explains why doctors and scientists have always leaned towards slowing down metabolic rate as a key to makes cells age slower. (ie. the fewer calories you eat, the healthier your organs, SOURCE)