A 50-ton bowhead whale killed off the coast of Alaska this past May was found with a bomb lance fragment dating from 1890 embedded in its scapula.

According to the New Bedford Whaling Museum the fragment was given to National Science Board wildlife biologist Craig George by Captain Arnold Brower, Sr., whose crew harvested the whale in accordance with the Alaska Eskimo subsistence bowhead whale hunt. which operates under a five-year quota that allows for 255 whales to be harvested by ten Alaskan villages.

While several other pieces of ancient weaponry, such as stone arrowheads, have been discovered in harvested whales in the past, this bomb lance fragment is still an “exciting find,” said John Bockstoce, an adjunct curator of the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts.

This particular weapon was only made for six years, from 1879 to 1885, before more modern materials replaced it—and New Bedford was the only city that made such weapons, he said. The limited availability of the weapon provides scientists with clear evidence to pinpoint within a few years when the whale was harpooned.

The find bolsters scientists’ claims that bowhead whales can live to be older than 200 years, making them the longest-living species on the planet and provides anthropologists with a better historical idea of the commercial whaling era, whichnearly eradicated the bowhead species in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

“It’s amazing that we still find whales swimming around with these old harpoon tips in them. How many that are still out there is anyone’s guess, but it’s probably a fair number,” said University of Purdue professor John Bickham.

The International Whaling Commission renewed Alaskan native populations’ right to harvest 56 bowhead whales a year earlier this spring. It’s a positive ruling for Alaskan populations who depend on subsistence hunting, Bickham said, co-author of a study for the scientific meeting to determine the appropriate number of targeted whales.

The 11,000-strong bowhead population is growing by an average of 3 percent per year and can withstand an annual harvest.

“It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a lot,” Bickham said.

• • •

• • • • • • • • • •