The whale skeleton, which has been hanging for 24 years, has been leaking oil. How much oil does the whale have?

On March 1, 1998, a 5-year-old blue whale was accidentally hit by a ship's propeller while swimming not far from the sea surface.

The blow caused fatal damage to the blue whale. Even more unfortunately, not long after, another 148-meter-long ship collided with the dying blue whale. The young blue whale was pushed against the bow of the ship. Because it was under the hull, the people on the ship did not notice it. Two days later, on March 3, people found the blue whale and confirmed its death. Soon, the whale's body was sent to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, where the staff first separated the whale meat and bones, and then placed them in 22 cages.

Although it is a young blue whale about 5 years old, its body length is nearly 20 meters. The best way to deal with such a huge creature is to rely on the power of nature.

The museum staff sank 22 cages filled with whale bones and flesh into the seabed, simulating the natural "whale fall" process and letting marine life clean up the skeleton of this giant. This process took about five months. The cleaned whale skeleton was brought back to the museum, and after drying, bleaching, repairing and reassembling, a complete whale skeleton specimen was born and named "KOBO".

In 2000, KOBO was hung in the New Bedford Whaling Museum in the United States for display.

Soon, this complete whale skeleton specimen became the most popular work in the museum. It was hung in the most conspicuous position, and many tourists came to visit it every day. However, there was a flaw in this specimen, that is, a black liquid would drip from the skull near the spine, and sometimes it would even fall directly on the head of some unlucky person. This black liquid was actually whale oil. In fact, the museum staff had long known that the whale oil was difficult to remove, so they deliberately soaked the bones with a chemical solution for degreasing, but the final result was obviously still unsatisfactory.

At first, the museum did not pay much attention to KOBO's oil dripping phenomenon, but one drop of oil lasted for ten years, so the museum decided to collect the oil to see how much there was.

The staff connected a tube to KOBO's skull near the spine, and a flask was connected below the tube. After 14 years, a 1000 ml flask has been full, and another new flask has been filled with about 200 ml. That is to say, KOBO has leaked 1200 ml of oil so far. If the first 10 years had not been wasted, more would definitely be collected now.

A skeletal specimen that has gone through multiple processing steps has so much oil. How much oil does a whale have?

The blue whale is the largest animal in the world and also one of the animals with the highest body fat content. Generally speaking, the body fat content of a blue whale is about 35%. KOBO is a 5-year-old young blue whale, weighing about 36 tons, which means that its body fat weighs about 12.6 tons. A large amount of fat can help whales maintain their body temperature in the cold sea water, so the fat of whales is mainly in the fat layer under the skin.

What we usually call whale oil is the fat removed from the subcutaneous fat layer of whales and then obtained by boiling.

However, the black liquid dripping from KOBO is not subcutaneous fat, but comes from the bone marrow. The bone marrow of whales also contains a lot of oil, which can help whales maintain buoyancy and can also serve as a backup energy source for emergencies. However, the place with the highest proportion of fat on the whale's body is neither in the whale's sebum layer nor in the whale's bone marrow, but in the whale's milk. The fat content of whale milk is as high as 42.3%. Although I have never drunk whale milk, such a high fat content may make me feel like drinking oil.