49 Ft Long, 50-Tonne, Maybe 130 Year-Old Bowhead Whale

Calculating a whale's age can be difficult and is usually gauged by amino acids in the eye lenses. It is rare to find one that has lived more than a century, but experts say the oldest are close to 200. The bomb-lance fragment, lodged in a bone between the neck and shoulder blade, was likely to have been made in New Bedford, on the south-east coast of Massachusetts, a major whaling centre at that time, Mr Bockstoce said. It was probably shot at the whale from a heavy shoulder gun around 1890. The small metal cylinder was filled with explosives fitted with a time-delay fuse so it would explode seconds after it was shot into the whale. It was meant to kill the whale immediately and prevent it from escaping. The device exploded and probably injured the whale, Mr Bockstoce said. "It probably hurt the whale, or annoyed him, but it hit him in a non-lethal place. He couldn't have been that bothered if he lived for another 100 years." http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=928852007

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