Beached Whale put down with a single .338 Norma today

[Mergie Master]

I didn't know whether to post this to a hunting forum or the saltwater fishing forum.

Beached whale was put down with a single .338 Norma in Iceland today

The .Gif Of The Shot

Image:



(Also got this comment from the forum where this was posted)

I know killing whales is a big taboo to many people but let me explain why this was the best course of action:

• The whale was discovered after being stranded for almost a day, meaning it was unable to get out by itself. Being stranded this long means that it is unlikely that it would survive if it got back into the sea.

• Like many beached whales, it was badly sunburnt and visibly suffering. Even if it had made it back into the ocean it might have suffered an agonizing death from these burns.

• There was no way of getting heavy machinery into the area and it would have to be dug out by hand and dragged to the sea with a boat, meaning hours of labor and planning during which the whale would probably have died anyway for the above reasons.

• Multiple government agencies were notified and it was agreed that a rescue was very unlikely to be successful and that the best course of action was to end its suffering.

The whale will probably be cut up and the meat harvested. Iceland has a long tradition of whale hunting and harvesting beached whales. In fact, the word for a beached whale, hvalreki, is also used to denote a stroke of luck.

[sftull]

I wonder what whale taste like?

[Swamp Rat]

Chicken

[Griffin]

I have a 338 edge on the lathe right now. Pretty pumped to shoot a deer with it

[ReelHard]

Damn i thought this was about Rosie

[Silentweapon338]

We went to a whaling village up in Ct this past fall. Mystic Sea pot lol!

It was very interesting to learn about the whaling ships an practices.

I was incredibly surprised.

But from what were told the the smell was rather rough when they were cooking the blubber to get whale oil.

Interestingly enough all be it now illegal the Feds have quite a reserve of whale oil stored. They use it on the national space station an several "top secret" satellites we have for lube.

Now this should tell you how useful wheel oil is. We for all our ingenuity don't have a replacement for what an how it works. We have similar man made versions, but we don't have anything that can touch whale oil.

[birdweiser]

Damn i thought this was about Rosie

Me Too

[uga_dawg]

I wonder what whale taste like?

similar to manatee

[turbo]

We went to a whaling village up in Ct this past fall. Mystic Sea pot lol!

It was very interesting to learn about the whaling ships an practices.

I was incredibly surprised.

But from what were told the the smell was rather rough when they were cooking the blubber to get whale oil.

Interestingly enough all be it now illegal the Feds have quite a reserve of whale oil stored. They use it on the national space station an several "top secret" satellites we have for lube.

Now this should tell you how useful wheel oil is. We for all our ingenuity don't have a replacement for what an how it works. We have similar man made versions, but we don't have anything that can touch whale oil.

What the hell are you talking about?

What do you think the demand is for whale oil? What are the modern day uses for it?

[cleancutredneck]

Damn i thought this was about Rosie

you mean the homosexuwhale?

[Mergie Master]

What the hell are you talking about?

I'm pretty sure he's talking about this. But I'm not as smart as you so I may be wrong:

Did you know that whale oil was used to send a man to the moon? I learned this weird but true fact during my sea travels...Back in the day, NASA used whale oil as a lubricant in their space program, including the ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) for expeditions to the Moon and Mars. Fast forward to the future and whale oil is still being used to lubricate spacecraft such as the Hubble space telescope and the Voyager space probe. Apparently spermaceti--or Sperm whale oil--doesn't freeze in sub-zero temperatures (quite important given space's super-chilly temps) and man hasn't yet found a suitable substitute for the natural lubricant.

What do you think the demand is for whale oil? What are the modern day uses for it?

Now? Who knows. There were so many uses for from soap to nitroglycerine I'm sure they haven't figured something synthetic for all of those (see Hubble above). Which at the time I didn't think that much about it. But back in 1846 whale oil sold for $10 a barrel, that's $240 dollars today. That means it was a in 1846 alone whaling was equivalent to a third of a trillion dollars, in a much smaller overall economy. I remember when my dad had a small bottle he used on his guns.

Gun Lubricant History: Sperm Whale Oil

Sperm Whale oil holds a revered, legendary status in the minds of many shooters, especially older gunsmiths. And this is not without reason. It was incredibly durable, worked in a very wide range of temperatures, could go on thin, had a tendency to stay clean, didn't absorb water, and had a strong tendency to stay adhered to metallic surfaces it was placed on. It has reached a near mythical status in some circles today, which has only been reinforced by the 1972 whaling ban. Almost nobody under 50 years old has used it or even seen it, and what is heard about it from knowledgeable people is almost hard to believe, spoken of in often reverential tones. For these and other reasons, those few who have their irreplaceable, dwindling stocks of Sperm Whale oil tend to horde it with extreme prejudice.

It's arguable that, had we not had access to this lubricant, not only may the advent of self-loading semi and fully-automatic weapons have been pushed back decades, but possibly the entire industrial revolution would have been as well. It's hard to overstate the profound importance of whaling to the US economy throughout the entire 19th century - it was foundational. It literally lubricated the entire industrial revolution, and whale products were in a stunning array of industrial and consumer items. In today's dollars, the value of the whaling fleet in 1846 alone was equivalent to a third of a trillion dollars, in a much smaller overall economy....continued

Whale oil was extremely important in the manufacture of nitroglycerin for explosives in both world wars, and whale liver oil was a major source...

[Mergie Master]

What the hell are you talking about?

I'm pretty sure he's talking about this. But I'm not as smart as you so I may be wrong:

Did you know that whale oil was used to send a man to the moon? I learned this weird but true fact during my sea travels...Back in the day, NASA used whale oil as a lubricant in their space program, including the ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) for expeditions to the Moon and Mars. Fast forward to the future and whale oil is still being used to lubricate spacecraft such as the Hubble space telescope and the Voyager space probe. Apparently spermaceti--or Sperm whale oil--doesn't freeze in sub-zero temperatures (quite important given space's super-chilly temps) and man hasn't yet found a suitable substitute for the natural lubricant.

What do you think the demand is for whale oil? What are the modern day uses for it?

Now? Who knows. There were so many uses for from soap to nitroglycerine I'm sure they haven't figured something synthetic for all of those (see Hubble above). Which at the time I didn't think that much about it. But back in 1846 whale oil sold for $10 a barrel, that's $240 dollars today. That means it was a in 1846 alone whaling was equivalent to a third of a trillion dollars, in a much smaller overall economy. I remember when my dad had a small bottle he used on his guns.

Gun Lubricant History: Sperm Whale Oil

Sperm Whale oil holds a revered, legendary status in the minds of many shooters, especially older gunsmiths. And this is not without reason. It was incredibly durable, worked in a very wide range of temperatures, could go on thin, had a tendency to stay clean, didn't absorb water, and had a strong tendency to stay adhered to metallic surfaces it was placed on. It has reached a near mythical status in some circles today, which has only been reinforced by the 1972 whaling ban. Almost nobody under 50 years old has used it or even seen it, and what is heard about it from knowledgeable people is almost hard to believe, spoken of in often reverential tones. For these and other reasons, those few who have their irreplaceable, dwindling stocks of Sperm Whale oil tend to horde it with extreme prejudice.

It's arguable that, had we not had access to this lubricant, not only may the advent of self-loading semi and fully-automatic weapons have been pushed back decades, but possibly the entire industrial revolution would have been as well. It's hard to overstate the profound importance of whaling to the US economy throughout the entire 19th century - it was foundational. It literally lubricated the entire industrial revolution, and whale products were in a stunning array of industrial and consumer items. In today's dollars, the value of the whaling fleet in 1846 alone was equivalent to a third of a trillion dollars, in a much smaller overall economy....continued

Whale oil was extremely important in the manufacture of nitroglycerin for explosives in both world wars, and whale liver oil was a major source...