The Oozing Whale Skeleton of New Bedford

In New Bedford, Massachusetts, one of the settings of Herman Melville’s story of the Great White Whale, there is a suspended whale skeleton that has been oozing oil for over 15 years.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum is filled with cannibal forks, the world’s largest scrimshaw collection, canned whale meat, and 2,500 handwritten accounts of whaling voyages. Here, the unusual is usual, including its collection of four whale skeletons hanging over the entrance. These giant marine mobiles include a humpback named Quasimodo, a fetal right whale and its mother Reyna, and the biggest—a blue whale called KOBO.

In 1998 KOBO (“King of the Blue Ocean”) was accidentally struck by a tanker off the coast of Nova Scotia, and his carcass was saved for research and education. He is one of only four blue whale skeletons on display in the world, and at 66 feet long, with a one-and-a-half ton skull, KOBO makes your head snap back in awe. It’s probably a good idea to keep your mouth shut if you do, to avoid the occasional drips of oil still oozing from his bones almost 20 years after the tragic accident. Whales are so oily, KOBO’s bones will keep leaking for many years to come.

The Museum has taken advantage of these leaky bones as a learning opportunity and has set up a platform to funnel some of the whale oil into a small beaker. While the display inspires occasional questions from visitors, the answer to “Can I use this to cook with?” is “Probably not.”