Sperm Whales

A guest blog from Isobel Fairbairn

Moby Dick’s own antagonist, Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus) are one of the oceans most elusive creatures.

These creatures must be hoarding more knowledge than the board of NASA, as they carry one of the largest brains on earth all bundled up inside one of the largest, heaviest heads! It is also thought that alongside these brains, carried around in the head is Spermaceti, once thought to be a stream of sperm it is now assumed to be a liquid that helps with buoyancy.

Now all this odd sounding liquid would be needed for buoyancy as sperm whales spend a lot of their time diving; although they can weigh between 35-45 tonnes, they can dive over 7000 feet. While down, they can hold their breath for up to 90 minutes; I’ve only just started out my scuba diving training but the idea of being under water for that long is a marvel to me…and I’m thinking with our heavy kit, imagine carrying their head on your shoulders! I guess sperm whales also don’t need to learn hand signals while diving either, aside from the fact they have wonderful methods of communication, “O.K?” hand signals may be quite hard sans fingers.

I think sperm whales diving ability makes them one of my favourite creatures, on top of that, have you ever seen a sperm whale sleep? Eerily haunting. A seemingly magnificent sighting. Something I could only dream of seeing up close. The notion that these giant-like creatures can simply stop and hang like icicles is almost unbelievable.

It’s not only their diving abilities that makes sperm whales stand out so much in my eyes, but also their incredible ability to communicate. Now maybe this Is because I was talking before I could walk and, as my mother says, haven’t stopped since, but these whales have a broad, potentially in-depth “language” that they, similarly to us, learn from their parents.

Unlike many mammals the sperm whales form of communication stretches beyond just primal needs and urges. Sperm whales seem to interact with one another in many ways; body language combined with vocalisation, researchers and journalists alike have seen these whales act like tight knit friends or family, with closeness and familiarity between them uncanny to our own. Brothers have been seen almost conversing, playing around together for extended periods of time, young calves have been seen being scolded by parental figures.

Not only does their communication give us an insight into their complex nature, but the way they spend their lives does. The calves’ tendencies to stay with the mother throughout, staying in pods with the females and the males tendencies to leave the pod around 4 years old but then often going and starting their own family eventually, shows us even deeper into their nature.

Their emotional depth, the relationship they have with others, their own family and even how they can adapt their tones to interact with strangers is enlightening. I’m sure there’s a lot we can learn from sperm whales, and I hope we never stop trying to learn from them or about them.

These mere interactions give us an insight into the incredible beings that are sperm whales, and the intricate lives they lead. The emotional depth we’ve already seen whales express over the years gives me an intense feeling of connection to our world, the oceans and the incredible creatures that inhabit them. That we have an honour to share the earth with these animals alone is one thing, that they allow us even a small view into their world is another.

Isobel Fairbairn is a 22 year old first year Marine Biology student at the university of Salford with a passion for both writing and marine life. “I loves to share things that I learn along my journey and that’s when I decided I wanted to take my career towards writing, I’ve always wanted to write but when my two passions collided I knew I had to go in this direction.”