Amazing fact of the day: there are whales alive today off of the coast of Alaska that were alive when Moby Dick was written in 1851:
Bowheads seem to be recovering from the harvest of Yankee commercial whaling from 1848 to 1915, which wiped out all but 1,000 or so animals. Because the creatures can live longer than 200 years — a fact [Craig] George discovered when he found an old stone harpoon point in a whale — some of the bowheads alive today may have themselves dodged the barbed steel points of the Yankee whalers.
Fascinating. More here.
Posted in Just Plain Odd