Sperm Whales at the Addo Canyon
By Lloyd Edwards

1. News

Raggy Charters has been running cruises to the Addo Canyon for the last 28 years. Although we have seen Sperm Whales in the past, it is only in the last two years that we have been looking for them in earnest. We tend to find them at a specific location at the Canyon and seldom miss.

Believe it or not, Sperm whales get their name from the fact that people originally thought that the oil contained in the organ that makes up its head, was the animal’s sperm! This whale was made famous in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, a book based on his hunt for the giant white whale.

It was the demand for this spermaceti oil that led to them being the most heavily exploited of all the large whales. This is the only whale product that cannot be synthetically produced and is still used by NASA.

It is the largest toothed whale and also has the largest brain of any animal on the planet, both present and past. It qualifies as the strangest looking cetacean, with its huge head, lumpy and wrinkled skin. Besides killer whales and humans, they are the most widely distributed animal on the planet. They live for 70 years or longer.

The Addo Canyon, some 70km south of Cape Recife, is where the continental shelf starts dropping from 200 metres to 2km. They hunt along this drop off. The average dive is around 45 minutes and resting is from 5 to 15 minutes between dives. While more abundant in winter, in summer they move towards the poles, the largest males going to the edge of the polar ice.

The most we have seen at the Canyon on any cruise is 7. This is crazy, given that their average dive time is 45 minutes, we must miss a whole heap of them! As we get better at observing them and finding their peak period, we will hopefully find more of them.

When we first observed the massive male in the attached images, it looked as if the animal had become entangled in a rope. This was because of the huge constriction behind the head and the Spermaceti organ. As the whale grows, this depression becomes more noticeable.

I sent the image to Dr Lisa Steiner, who I met in the Azores in 2015 during the World Cetacean Alliance Conference. She is an expert on Sperm whales and confirms that this is indeed an exceptionally large male and not caused from an entanglement. Thanks Lisa!

This is how he looks while resting between dives. Taken with a Nikon Z9 mirrorless, ISO 320, 200mm zoom, f/8 and 1/1250th second.

The Sperm whale blows to the left at an angle of 45 degrees. Baleen whales tend to blow straight upwards.

The single blowhole is right at the front of the head. Baleen whales have two which are situated further back.

The large cavity is clearly visible behind the head and the spermaceti organ. This is a really enormous male.

After the Oxygen has been replenished the tail is thrust upwards, signaling a deep dive.

This oak has two large bite marks on his tail flukes, possibly from a failed killer whale attack in his youth.

Lifting his tail flukes high out of the water starts the downward motion.

For such a large animal, there is very little disturbance on the surface of the water.

Happy Whale use the shape of the flukes to identify individuals.

Going, going and almost gone!