130 year old Spear found in the body of a Whale...

To-days whale harpoons have an explosive charge just inside the point, explodes just after impact, the shock wave destroys the whales brain, very nearly instant death,
By the way, I do not agree with whale/dolfin hunting.

Was a great documentary - made the whales seem more intelligent than I realized.

reply to post by biggmoneyme


The blue wales have a 9 foot long penis.

reply to post by Akragon


Thank you for showing me this

Originally posted by theruthlessone
reply to post by Talltexxxan

 

seriously your talking total garbage............

Please, tell me sir. What part of my post is total garbage?
The logic part? or the part that denys ignorance.


I'll wait........

reply to post by Talltexxxan


you didnt read the article did you?
they identified the spear and concluded it was only produced during a small window of time in england
so you could be right there is a chance the spear was used later
but i could just as easily say its possible there are 30 foot tall monsters living in the woods behind my house (bad example but i dont think you really care)
possible yes ... extremely unlikely? you bet

reply to post by Akragon


Well, it wasn't a "disgusting practice" 100 years ago, they had to do what they could to hunt wales with what technology they had at the time. But I agree with you, the images and the find are startling.

Star and flag you ol goat.

reply to post by Akragon


Akragon,
Thank you for this very interesting post! I do too absolutely become sick at the idea of what they do to whales as well..but besides that..This post is awesome to read! How cool to find that and how cool of a story does that Whale have to tell! Unfortunately it does show the steady human nature of brutally hunting animals over the years..But it is so very cool to find this a read about this.
Thank you so much for sharing this piece of aquatic history!

Originally posted by NOTurTypical
reply to post by Akragon

 

Well, it wasn't a "disgusting practice" 100 years ago, they had to do what they could to hunt wales with what technology they had at the time. But I agree with you, the images and the find are startling.

Star and flag you ol goat.

edit on 24-2-2012 by NOTurTypical because: (no reason given)

Hahaha... bible reference...

Im no Goat my friend... Im the shepards loyal dog

Originally posted by Akragon

Originally posted by NOTurTypical
reply to post by Akragon

 

Well, it wasn't a "disgusting practice" 100 years ago, they had to do what they could to hunt wales with what technology they had at the time. But I agree with you, the images and the find are startling.

Star and flag you ol goat.

Hahaha... bible reference...

Im no Goat my friend... Im the shepards loyal dog

LOL, it's more a country term, not so much Christian one. Sorta means you old gruff.

very interesting, it said it survived the blast because of a 1 foot thick layer of blubber, thats pretty crazy.

Originally posted by prevenge

Originally posted by 1littlewolf

:

It is far more likely the spear has been in the whales neck for 130 years than someone specially made a spear head similar to ones made 130 years ago and then speared a whale on the off chance biologists would find it and then claim the whale is 200+ years old.

You have to consider what would be the most likely scenario.

have you fully analyzed whaler and Inuit cultures and asserted that antique harpoons or spearheads are not used as decoration around the ships and might be used as a last resort if all other harpoons no board were spent?

you've found that that scenario does NOT exist at ALL or if it did.. then it would be LESS likely of happening than the 130 yr old spearhead staying in an 130+ yr old whale...

I do not agree with your logic there..

also even if it's 130+ yrs old.. no surprised... tortoises are 175+ yrs old...
http:// www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8679625/Worlds-oldest-living-animal-is-178-year-old-tortoise-called-Jonathan.html

Um okay......

What part of the word 'likely' do you not understand. I did not say this is what definitely happened, only that of all possible scenarios the fact that a whale got harpooned a long time ago and the harpoon tip lodged in its blubber is far more plausible than people mounting antique harpoons to the side of ships (and then using them in emergencies) or Inuits using antique harpoons........... which then in turn gets lodged into a whale for a very long time any way. Sorry if I lack a doctorate in the ancient practices of ships decoration or Inuit hunting methods to back up my assertion.

Also FYI the oldest tortoise on record was Adwaita who is believed to have lived to a grand old age of 255 years

How much older would it have become if we (humans) hadn't killed it?

Originally posted by 1littlewolf

Originally posted by prevenge

Originally posted by 1littlewolf

:

It is far more likely the spear has been in the whales neck for 130 years than someone specially made a spear head similar to ones made 130 years ago and then speared a whale on the off chance biologists would find it and then claim the whale is 200+ years old.

You have to consider what would be the most likely scenario.

have you fully analyzed whaler and Inuit cultures and asserted that antique harpoons or spearheads are not used as decoration around the ships and might be used as a last resort if all other harpoons no board were spent?

you've found that that scenario does NOT exist at ALL or if it did.. then it would be LESS likely of happening than the 130 yr old spearhead staying in an 130+ yr old whale...

I do not agree with your logic there..

also even if it's 130+ yrs old.. no surprised... tortoises are 175+ yrs old...
http:// www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8679625/Worlds-oldest-living-animal-is-178-year-old-tortoise-called-Jonathan.html

Um okay......

What part of the word 'likely' do you not understand. I did not say this is what definitely happened, only that of all possible scenarios the fact that a whale got harpooned a long time ago and the harpoon tip lodged in its blubber is far more plausible than people mounting antique harpoons to the side of ships (and then using them in emergencies) or Inuits using antique harpoons........... which then in turn gets lodged into a whale for a very long time any way. Sorry if I lack a doctorate in the ancient practices of ships decoration or Inuit hunting methods to back up my assertion.

Also FYI the oldest tortoise on record was Adwaita who is believed to have lived to a grand old age of 255 years

edit on 28/2/2012 by 1littlewolf because: (no reason given)

riiight right.. but how do you KNOW which is more 'likely' .. you don't. you really do not.. and I'm not just being stubborn. .I'm not throwing a monkey wrench in your brain gears for the sake of doing so. simply because YOUR explanation for this... and the article's is NOT more 'likely' or 'probable' than mine. You do not have enough data about whalers or what happens out there to support your theory that the whale's age being so is more probable than my explanation. This is absolute fact.

Originally posted by prevenge

riiight right.. but how do you KNOW which is more 'likely' .. you don't. you really do not.. and I'm not just being stubborn. .I'm not throwing a monkey wrench in your brain gears for the sake of doing so. simply because YOUR explanation for this... and the article's is NOT more 'likely' or 'probable' than mine. You do not have enough data about whalers or what happens out there to support your theory that the whale's age being so is more probable than my explanation. This is absolute fact.

Occam's Razor. It's the simplest explanation. Any other explanantion simply makes the scenario more complex and still requires a harpoon head to be lodged in the whale for a long time anyway.

Occam's Razor.........is a principle that generally recommends that, from among competing hypotheses, selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions usually provides the correct one, and that the simplest explanation will be the most plausible until evidence is presented to prove it false. Source

Originally posted by 1littlewolf

Originally posted by prevenge

riiight right.. but how do you KNOW which is more 'likely' .. you don't. you really do not.. and I'm not just being stubborn. .I'm not throwing a monkey wrench in your brain gears for the sake of doing so. simply because YOUR explanation for this... and the article's is NOT more 'likely' or 'probable' than mine. You do not have enough data about whalers or what happens out there to support your theory that the whale's age being so is more probable than my explanation. This is absolute fact.

Occam's Razor. It's the simplest explanation. Any other explanantion simply makes the scenario more complex and still requires a harpoon head to be lodged in the whale for a long time anyway.

Occam's Razor.........is a principle that generally recommends that, from among competing hypotheses, selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions usually provides the correct one, and that the simplest explanation will be the most plausible until evidence is presented to prove it false. Source

edit on 1/3/2012 by 1littlewolf because: (no reason given)

I'll take the Occam's Rogaine actually. .... also Occam's Razor does not account for odd occurrences which may be just as probable as common occurrences. Occam only is only useful within the realm of currently available data.. NOT "ALL DATA that exists". Occam's Razor arrogantly places the skeptic as grand high priest of information.
The modern whaler using the decoration antique harpoon theory trumps the ancient whale theory.
ON ALL ACCOUNTS.
Specifically without assuming. I KNOW from experience and observation... that whalers have antique harpoons on board very often.
I do NOT know from any amount of observation or experience that whales are 130+ yrs old automatically because harpoon heads of that age are found within their flesh.

Originally posted by prevenge

Originally posted by 1littlewolf

Originally posted by prevenge

riiight right.. but how do you KNOW which is more 'likely' .. you don't. you really do not.. and I'm not just being stubborn. .I'm not throwing a monkey wrench in your brain gears for the sake of doing so. simply because YOUR explanation for this... and the article's is NOT more 'likely' or 'probable' than mine. You do not have enough data about whalers or what happens out there to support your theory that the whale's age being so is more probable than my explanation. This is absolute fact.

Occam's Razor. It's the simplest explanation. Any other explanantion simply makes the scenario more complex and still requires a harpoon head to be lodged in the whale for a long time anyway.

Occam's Razor.........is a principle that generally recommends that, from among competing hypotheses, selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions usually provides the correct one, and that the simplest explanation will be the most plausible until evidence is presented to prove it false. Source

edit on 1/3/2012 by 1littlewolf because: (no reason given)

I'll take the Occam's Rogaine actually. .... also Occam's Razor does not account for odd occurrences which may be just as probable as common occurrences. Occam only is only useful within the realm of currently available data.. NOT "ALL DATA that exists". Occam's Razor arrogantly places the skeptic as grand high priest of information.
The modern whaler using the decoration antique harpoon theory trumps the ancient whale theory.
ON ALL ACCOUNTS.
Specifically without assuming. I KNOW from experience and observation... that whalers have antique harpoons on board very often.
I do NOT know from any amount of observation or experience that whales are 130+ yrs old automatically because harpoon heads of that age are found within their flesh.

I completely agree with what you’re saying overall, especially the part about the sceptic.

But I think I also mentioned that I highly doubt the scientists are using this spear as the basis for their theory that this species of whale lives for 200+ years. Without looking too deeply into it I would assume this theory is based on a number of observations and this spear (although definitely inconclusive) does lend support to the hypothesis. To use the harpoon as the main basis for the theory would not only be very foolish, but would also only support an age of 140 - 150 years max.

But if humans can live for decades with bullets imbedded in their bodies then I have no doubt that if a harpoon head were imbedded into a whale deeply enough it would stay there until the creature dies, be that in a few weeks, a decade or 130 years.

You are also are right about odd occurrences happening quite commonly, and if it turned out that the harpoon had been in that whale for a much shorter length of time but had gotten there in a much more unlikely way then I wouldn’t be surprised.

Originally posted by 1littlewolf

But if humans can live for decades with bullets imbedded in their bodies then I have no doubt that if a harpoon head were imbedded into a whale deeply enough it would stay there until the creature dies, be that in a few weeks, a decade or 130 years.

You are also are right about odd occurrences happening quite commonly, and if it turned out that the harpoon had been in that whale for a much shorter length of time but had gotten there in a much more unlikely way then I wouldn’t be surprised.

there we go! agreed!

Originally posted by prevenge

Originally posted by 1littlewolf

But if humans can live for decades with bullets imbedded in their bodies then I have no doubt that if a harpoon head were imbedded into a whale deeply enough it would stay there until the creature dies, be that in a few weeks, a decade or 130 years.

You are also are right about odd occurrences happening quite commonly, and if it turned out that the harpoon had been in that whale for a much shorter length of time but had gotten there in a much more unlikely way then I wouldn’t be surprised.

there we go! agreed!

That's why I like ATS. There's enough smart civilized people here that you can eventually reach some sort of agreement...