Each year, under the supervision of the International Whaling Commission, 10 Alaskan villages are allowed to harvest 255 whales, which are still used as a major source of food for Alaska’s natives.
This year’s hunt revealed something absolutely amazing.
A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast had a 3 1/2 inch arrow-shaped projectile under its blubber that researchers dated back to 1890 through old manufacturing records.
These researchers believe that the arrow-shaped projectile was a bomb-lance cylinder used in whaling around 1890, and matches a similar find from a whale hunted in 1980.
Researchers place this bowhead at somewhere between 115 and 130 years old.
While this whale is an amazing find because of the rarity of whales this age, it is widely believed that some of the oldest bowhead whales live to be to nearly 200 years old.
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