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Blue whale skeleton at New Bedford museum still oozing oil

(www.wpri.com)
201 points geox | 1 comments | 17 Oct 24 23:09 UTC | HN request time: 0.193s | source
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poulsbohemian ◴[19 Oct 24 17:55 UTC] No.41889361[source]▶
Ok I'm going to come out and say it because I think multiple people in this thread have hinted at the same confusion: What bloody kind of oil are we talking about here? Whale oil, that somehow was captured in the bones? Petroleum oil from the whale's encounter with the tanker? They basically buried the lede on this story and nowhere appear to explain why this particular whale is dripping some kind of "oil" that seemingly other museum example don't experience. So - anyone got any insight here?
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1. RexM ◴[20 Oct 24 06:26 UTC] No.41893346[source]▶
From the article:

> Rocha explained that KOBO’s bone marrow is actually “full of oil,” even though the whale has been dead for more than two decades.

> “It’s seeping out through the pores of the bones,” Rocha said. “The outer edges of the bone are a little more porous than human bones and [gravity is] just pulling the oil out.”