A scar from history, still carried through living flesh.

 

 

 

A scar from history, still carried through living flesh.

In 2007, researchers made a discovery that felt almost impossible to believe. A bowhead whale was found still carrying a harpoon embedded in its body—an iron weapon traced back to the 1800s, from the brutal age of commercial whaling.

The harpoon had remained lodged for more than a century, silently traveling with the whale through freezing oceans and changing generations.

It revealed not just extraordinary longevity, but an almost unimaginable resilience—proof that this whale survived a human attack and kept living for over a hundred years afterward.