Blue whale skeleton at New Bedford museum still oozing oil

Re:Blue whale skeleton at New Bedford museum still oozing oil by mattkrause on Saturday October 19, 2024 @02:03PM (#41889415)

It sounds like it’s whale oil because:

- it’s coming from the bone marrow

- it has a reddish tint

- the curator says the smell is reminiscent of a whaling ship and not, say, a machine shop or oil rig.

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Re:Blue whale skeleton at New Bedford museum still oozing oil by poulsbohemian on Saturday October 19, 2024 @02:40PM (#41889689)

I think you are probably right, but then the natural question becomes - why? As in, is there something unique to this specimen and it's display? If I drive over to the aquarium in my state and examine the whale display, would it also drip?

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Re:Blue whale skeleton at New Bedford museum still oozing oil by ekelsen on Saturday October 19, 2024 @02:46PM (#41889726)

Probably not -- very few whale skeletons on display are from recently deceased whales. Just a random lookup -- the one in the London Natural History Museum is from 1891. Seems likely that when it was new it also leaked some oil?

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Re:Blue whale skeleton at New Bedford museum still oozing oil by msds on Sunday October 20, 2024 @08:30PM (#41899673)

Machine shops actually used whale oil until quite late. Much better than equivalent petroleum products until the '50s or later.

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