BoatBanter.com - How long do whales live?

Reprinted from the July 2007 Latitude 38

How long do whales live? that is a tough
question to answer. People have been keeping
track of orcas around Puget Sound long enough
that ages up to 90 years are claimed. Pelagic
whales are another story. They're almost
impossible to keep track of. But science has
found ways. Blue whales, for example, have
little bones in their ears that are good indicators.
Other whales, such as bowheads, don't have ear
bones. A few years ago, scientists figured out
that they can determine the age of a bowhead
by measuring the amino acid in their eye lenses.

Occassionally, there are actual physical markers,
such as the one found in a 49-ft bowhead whale
killed last month in Alaska. (to help preserve their
traditionaly way of life, Alaskan Eskimos are
allowed to kill about 50 whales a year.) Embedded
in the whales body were fragments of a bomb lance
tha had been fired into the 50-ton animal -- ahem --
1890. The small metal cylinder was of a type fired
from a rifle like weapon. It contained an explosive
head which was meant to kill the whale when it
went off. This one went off, but in a non-lethal
place. And the whale healed. Figuring it must
have been an adult at the time, researchers
estimated his age at between 115 and 130 years
old.

Other artifacts retrieved from dead whales in the
1970's suggest even more staggering lifespans,
in this case several bone spearheads of a type
last used by Inuit hunters in --ahem -- ahem--
the 18th Century. Based on the eye lens test,
the oldest known bowhead whale was estimated
to have been 211 years old when it died. Sorry,
we mean 'when it was killed'. These finding make
the bowhead whale the oldest living mammals on
earth.

We've long felt that whaling in modern times was
cruel and unnecessary, but somehow knowing
these gentle creatures continue to be killed after
living so long makes it even worse.