Blue whale skeleton still leaking oil 26 years after death

When visiting the New Bedford Whaling Museum in southeastern Massachusetts, visitors should stand carefully beneath the 20-meter-long blue whale skeleton. That’s because the whale bones still leak oil, even though the animal has been dead for more than two decades. Named King of the Blue Ocean (Kobo), the rare blue whale skeleton has been on display at the museum since 2000. The leaking phenomenon is a result of the whale’s bone marrow being filled with oil, much more than the bone itself. people, follow Popular Science.

“Marrow oil is a source of energy for whales. Baleen whales, in particular, often have a period of the year when they don’t feed,” said Robert Rocha, deputy curator of science and research at the Whale Museum. New Bedford, said. “There is energy stored in muscle and fat, but energy stored in oil and bones are their reserves.”

Normally, whale bones lose this oil through natural processes as they are buried on the sea floor and gnawed on by barnacles and other animals. However, Kobo was found at the bow of the ship. Even though they are the largest animals on the planet, blue whales are still no match for giant oil tankers and can be accidentally hit by ships.

According to Rocha, Kono is likely only about 5 years old and is estimated to weigh about 36,287 kg. It was accidentally killed by a 148 m long cargo ship on the way from Belgium to Providence, Rhode Island in 1998. The animal’s body was pulled ashore and dissected by scientists for research. The collection team did not spend time separating the oil from the skeletons, but just left them out in the sun and processed them.

In 2010, the museum installed an oil catcher to see how much oil they could collect. The device is located near the beak, snout and spine. It catches the oil that drips into the flask every day and the museum has collected 1,000 ml in a storage jar and 200 ml in a catcher.

Oil from such skeletons was not used to light lamps during the whaling period of the 19th century. It was not until fishing facilities and processing plants arose that fishermen and soldiers New recruits can use bone oil. This oil is also used in explosives because a byproduct of whale oil soap is glycerol. When glycerol mixes with nitric and sulfuric acids, the explosive nitroglycerin is created. Nitroglycerin was used as a propellant for bullets and rockets during World Wars I and II.