New Bedford whale makes it into Ripley’s

January 16, 2018 6:18 am

By: News Staff

Email: news@abc6.com

Twitter: @ABC6

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (WLNE) — A whale skeleton at the New Bedford Whaling Museum has earned a spot in the latest edition of Ripley’s Believe It or Not.

The museum’s blue whale on display has been leaking oil for decades. In fact, the whale died in 1998 and the bones were left to be cleaned in New Bedford’s Harbor.

However, it did not remove the naturally occurring oil from the bones. The oddity captured the attention of Ripley’s.

“He’s been hanging here since 2000 and dripping daily,” said museum volunteer, Thomas Flynn. “It’s an oddity that it drips. It wasn’t planned that way.”

The museum has since found other ways to clean the fossils to avoid this issue.

The whale is expected to keep dripping oil for approximately another 40 years.