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Weapon Found in Whale Dated From the 1800s
LABarr writes "AP and CNN are carrying a story that has forced scientists to re-evaluate the longevity of mammals. A bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt over a century ago. 'Embedded deep under its blubber was a 3½-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers insight into the whale's age, estimated between 115 and 130 years old. The bomb lance fragment, lodged in a bone between the whale's neck and shoulder blade, was likely manufactured in New Bedford, on the southeast coast of Massachusetts, a major whaling center at that time. It was probably shot at the whale from a heavy shoulder gun around 1890.' "
Captain Ahab ALWAYS gets his whale... Eventually.
The 'weapon' was also patented. As a result the RIAA has dispatched a flock of attorneys and intends to bring to court not only the tribe that killed the 100 ~ 200 year old beast, but anyone waiting in line for a hunk of blubber.
Reason? Reports of singing by tribe members have come in and without a doubt, multiple infringements have occured and will continue to occur until the bringers of justice step in and halt all misuse.
You've been warned.
FTA:
"The 49-foot male whale died when it was shot with a similar projectile last month, and the older device was found buried beneath its blubber as hunters carved it with a chain saw for harvesting."
In other words, the whale fell victim to a modern version of the same weapon it survived in the 1800s.
The enemies of Democracy are
This isn't the first time this has happened. I believe in one of Bill Bryson's books - probably 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' - he mentions a whale being found with a hand-thrown inuit spearhead embedded in its blubber. Or something along those lines... Anyway, it put the age of the animal well over 100 years.
A-Bomb
Nothing proves that man is who rules the Earth like taking animals that are 130 years old, killing them, and then hacking them up with a chainsaw. Keep showin' them animals who's boss, oh brave hunters.
YOU'RE NEXT, TURTLES
It was one of a 255 whale quota issued to villages of Native North Americans. These people eat the whale and use its parts for good use.
It ain't pretty, but it wasn't going to a bunch of sport hunters for trophies.
My very first thought when I read the headline was, 'If whales live so long, we should not be hunting them. They probably have a very finite rate of reproduction, their numbers are low and getting lower, and we're even killing the old ones.' I wish we would stop killing whales.
Ships injure and kill whales, whalers kill whales, sonar from U.S. Navy submarines kill whales and ruin their hearing. What we're doing is unforgivable.
Is anybody else alarmed about the news that we just killed an old whale?
Best regards.
Now why would you call native people yayhoos? This is not a story of some hayseeds out for a good time. This whale was harvested by a group of people that are monitored by the IWC and practice whaling as part of their indigenous culture. Did you read tfa? This is a major source of food for these people. Oh, because it's a 100 year old animal you have feelings for it? They can't eat because of your values? How nice of you. Don't bother to think of all the wood and lumber products in your life that are from trees that were FAR older than 100 years old when harvested.
Sig Registration Form 34c_766(a) submitted to Ministry of Signature Management. Approval pending.
Whales live indefinitely, and their master race 'swims' the universe in large cylinders. Everyone has known this since the historical documents were released in 1986.
Click here or here.
When reached for additional comment the scientists replied "Hey, I call 'em like I see 'em. I'm a whale biologist."
It probably felt just fine. I imagine being cut up by chainsaw recently felt much worse.
Developers: We can use your help.
Every time it would rain, the poor whale can be heard for miles singing the complaining song of old whales. Roughly translated from whale song as he was talking to younger whales, "Aye! My neck is killing me! Years ago, some son of a bitch human shot me right in me neck! Yarrr. It 'urts every time a storm is ah brew'n. Yarrr. Take note young'ns"
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
You mean a bunch of Inuits, yeah I guess it is sorta odd that we let old cultures hunt a dwindling population of animals. But hey gotta maintain that good indigenous culture.
You mad
The device exploded and probably injured the whale, Bockstoce said.
"It probably hurt the whale, or annoyed him, but it hit him in a non-lethal place," he said. "He couldn't have been that bothered if he lived for another 100 years."
The whale harkens back to far different era. If 130 years old, it would have been born in 1877, the year Rutherford B. Hayes was sworn in as president, when federal Reconstruction troops withdrew from the South and when Thomas Edison unveiled his newest invention, the phonograph.
The 49-foot male whale died when it was shot with a similar projectile last month, and the older device was found buried beneath its blubber as hunters carved it with a chain saw for harvesting.
You think there'd be a more humane way of killing any animal than to insert (i.e. shoot) a bomb inside its body.Oldest living mammal - hardly. Since there's evidence that whales live up to 200 years (I actually RTFA'd), I doubt it was the oldest one out there.
As for devine retribution, since the Inuit native religion isn't Christianity, I imagine whatever entitiy waits in the afterlife for them would say "Nice score on that whale! Pull up a chair and have some blubber!", or the equivalent Inuit custom. Even if they are Christian, you don't go to Hell for killing an animal and eating it.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
I am sympathetic to the plight of peoples whose culture have been so heavily influenced by outsiders, and their way of life being so changed. I do appreciate the cultures of indigenous peoples, especially peoples with lifestyles that are so closely tied to the environment. But I'm now wondering if we shouldn't be promoting the idea that they might want to catalog their cultural artifacts and rituals, but that they need to move on. The need to stop the whaling.
Go ahead, flame me, but I'm serious. We humans are having a profound effect on the planet and we need to change our behaviors. If you're wondering, yes, I have been modifying my behavior to lessen my impact for a long time; recycling, composting, reducing my energy usage. I'm near the practical limit of what I can do alone. Some new public policy to assist my efforts would help. Investment is solar cell technology, better and more public transportation, etc.
But back to the whales and the Inuit, the Norwegians (or whomever is hunting them), I'd like to see it stop.
Best regards.
If whales are livening longer than we thought and yet their numbers are still lower than they should be Who knows what the reproductive life of a whale is and it could mean many of the living adults dont breed anymore
Is firing chronometers into whales instead of exploding spear points. Preferably ones that can be read without a chainsaw.
The whale wasn't "caught", it was killed. It's really disappointing to think that people still killing rare, intelligent mammals that can live to over 150 years old.
And before people start telling me that whale hunting is part of Inuit tradition, I'd like to point out that TFA mentions that this whale was killed with an mechanically-launched explosive projectile. That's about as traditional as a Lakota shooting a buffalo with an AK-47.
How did it taste?
Deleted
I dunno, but if your whole argument for whale killing is that its preserving an ancient tradition, don't you think that arguments starts to look a little silly when you go out and do it with machine guns and sonar.
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
People have been assholes for a long time!
Why don't you post from an account instead of posting as an AC?
I am aware that Inuit were doing the hunting. So what? Inuit have other choices. Fishing for salmon would be a good example.
I do value the Inuit culture, but at a certain point clinging to old ways becomes a Luddite reaction to change. They don't need to hunt whale, and their continuing hunts of whales endanger their future ability to hunt whales.
Mankind needs to move on. Lingering in old ways does not exalt the past, it mocks the past.
Best regards.
Goddamnit. So I guess I can assume you're vegan, right? And that you only consume things you've grown and produced yourself? Otherwise shut the fuck up and stop acting like a fool hippocrite. I can almost guarantee you that your actions and lifestyle have a far greater negative impact on the environment and on other living things than these Inuit.
God doesn't care about animals.
However, the big different between God and animals is that there are animals.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
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Aging Whales: Evidence of Age
Marine researchers now believe that the Arctic Bowhead whale may live 180 years or longer making it the longest lived mammal on earth. Back in the early 1990's, biologists weren't sure whether to trust these estimates, that is, until they stumbled on an important clue. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont. Jeffery Bada is a Professor of Marine Chemistry at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at La Jolla, California.
"During the annual harvest by the local Inuit hunters, the biologists that were observing this found that there were stone harpoons imbedded in some of these whales. And these stone harpoons were no longer used by the local hunters after about 1870. Stone harpoons in a whale that was killed in the 90's implies that it is over a hundred years old, and this provided independent confirmation that we indeed were onto something really interesting."
What proved equally as interesting to Jeffrey Bada and the other researchers, was the fact that the oldest whales taken during the harvest were all males.
"I don't think it necessarily implies that the males of the species live longer than the females. It has more to do with their behavior. These hundred year plus old whales were survivors of the great slaughter of whales that took place in the late nineteenth century. And males in this species of Bowheads, tend to be solitary animals, where as the females group together in these big pods of whales, and as a result, they were probably more easily hunted. It may be that the solitary males survived, whereas the females were more heavily exploited."
We'll hear more about the long-lived Bowhead whales in a future programs. Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science for 200 years, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation.
---
[ above from: http://pulseplanet.com/archive/Feb02/2602.html ]
I think what we can all take away from this experience is that the environmental sciences are too boring for *most* Slashdot readers to get through the entire article.
Ok, maybe that's a little harsh, but I mean really, most of the comments make it clear that no one read the article. I feel like I'm in high school English class where the teacher would give a pop essay on the short story we were supposed to read the night before.
What's worse is that the poster did not even read the CNN article. Or perhaps didn't pay attention. The post says "AP and CNN are carrying a story that has forced scientists to re-evaluate the longevity of mammals". This is completely false. The linked-to CNN article says "It's rare to find [a whale] that has lived more than a century, but experts say the oldest were close to 200 years old."
Finally, the AP carried this story on Tuesday and CNN picked it up on Wednesday. Old news.
I'm kvetching (sp).
The whales are not getting extinct because 'nature does not need them anymore' but because some greedy humans earn money with killing them. The same goes for rhinos, elephants, tigers etc. Their place in the ecosystem has not been filled by other species, they are just slaughtered on behalf of a few boneheaded egocentric idiots who think it's cool to have a tigerskin or who don't care about the consequences of eating whale-meat.
It's not just about saving a species, it's about the whole ecosystem a species fits in that is destroyed because of the actions of forementioned idiots.
What person will donate an airborne act of love?
...pigs and turkeys are raised on farms where they don't play a role in the surrounding ecosystem...
Uh, dude? *We* *are* the surrounding ecosystem!
--
phunctor
"So let's let them use a machine gun. Or maybe a cannon? How about a fucking RPG. After all, it's the hunt that's important, right?"
Yes, I'm glad you see it now.
"Sorry, but a large part of tradition is the methodologies used." To YOU but not to everyone. Reread that until you get it.
"If there's a tradition that involves a long trek through the woods in order to learn self-survival skills and commune with nature, then packing a dozen rifles on an ATV doesn't fall with tradition."
To YOU but not to everyone. Do you see now why ethnocentrism and bigotry like that you're displaying are bad?
"If they want to keep with traditional events or ceremonies, use traditional equipment."
Except they're not your traditions, so why the fuck do you think you have any say in it whatsoever? Oh, because of what you demonstrated in your post already.
I got hit by a 1957 Chevy, therefore I must be at least 50 years old.
word.
I contrast the situation of endangered species with that of livestock. If one wants the benefits of harvesting animals is makes no sense to rely on nature to sustain UN-natural consumption rates. We don't depend on nature for fowl or eggs, we raise fowl and have a renewable supply of both.
If we want to harvest, we should farm or otherwise artificially support the populations we use.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
We don't really know how long bowheads live, so who is to say whether or not this example is an senior whale or not.
It is however a sexually mature whale, which is at least better than culling pre-pubescent individuals, and although I do not agree with whaling because I believe they are sentient creatures, the Inuit populations in the area do rely on whaling as a food source and it is an important part of their culture historically.
We cannot look at an aspect of their culture and say 'oh that is barbaric' and attempt to take it away or condemn it. Anthropologically, this has never been successful unless the so called 'barbaric practice' is replaced with another culturally significant practice. In this case one would also have to replace the food source as well.
-Magdalene --"there are 10 types of people in the world, those who read binary, and those who don't"