Image of the week : bowhead whale

In 2007, Alaskan Inupiat hunters made an extraordinary discovery.
Buried deep in the neck of a Bowhead whale was something unexpected:
A century-old harpoon fragment, a deadly relic from the 1800s.

It wasn’t just any harpoon.

It was a bomb lance, an explosive projectile used in 19th-century whaling manufactured in New Bedford, Massachusetts, sometime between 1885 and 1895.

This weapon was designed to detonate inside a whale’s body.
Yet somehow, this whale had survived.
When biologists examined the fragment, they confirmed the whale had been struck more than 100 years earlier.
At the time of its death, it was estimated to be at least 115 years old. Until then, scientists believed Bowhead whales lived around 60 to 70 years.

This discovery doubled that assumption, offering living proof that these Arctic giants can endure for over a century….

 

Links :

• BBC : It's harpoon-proof, 'sings' jazz music, and lives up to 200 years – meet the bowhead whale, a record-breaking giant of the animal world
• Forbes : Meet The Longest-Living Mammal (Hint: It Was Found Alive With An 1880s-Era Harpoon In Its Side)
• IFLScience : In 2007, A 100-Year-Old Harpoon Was Found Inside The World’s Longest-Living Mammal