11.07.2018 – Giants of the depth

A ride on our zodiac “Stenella” is always refreshing, the nice airstream over the waves, a bit of spray here, a little jump in the swell there. It has been especially refreshing today. We got the information form our spotter that he had seen “something big”.

So, went out 4 miles offshore, throttled down the engine and waited. After a few minutes, we saw the first sign of an animals, a true giant of the depth – a Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus). They are sea creatures of the superlatives. Male animals can stay under water for more than 90 minutes and reach a maximum depth of almost 3000 m. Fortunately, we didn’t need to wait that long and were able to detect a shallow blowout in the distance. Such a little cloud over the surface is a good indicator for a bigger whale. We slowly approached the animals when the whale suddenly decided to turn around and pass by in parallel to our boat. This animal has been longer than our vessel. A gender identification was not possible. In general, the males can grow up to 20 m in length and almost 50 t in weight. The Sperm whale ladies are significantly smaller, they can get 12 m long with a weight of 20 t.

A bit later this animal dove down after showing its big fluke upright from the surface. But this was not the only Sperm whale in the area. We saw another blow not far off to our bow. This time, we found two extremely inquisitive whales: a mother with her calf. The young one was tiny compared to its mum. Newborn Sperm whales are already 3 to 4 m long, this child must have been a few years old. They were hanging out close to the surface around us for a while. We could see them moving under water as they were occasionally pointing their bright undersides upwards.

But the highlight was just to come. The Sperm whales decided to check us out a bit closer, they swam to our side until their massive brown square-shaped heads broke through the wavy surface right next to the stern. We were all stunned. Fortunately, our Skipper Daniel had anticipated this behavior and submerged his underwater camera on a pole. We took a look on the unique footage right on the boat and left these giants from the depth fascinated and happy about this incredible encounter.

by Jan-Christopher Fischer

Sightings of the day

Ribeira Brava

13:30 Bottlenose dolphins

Stenella

15:30 Sperm whales, Loggerhead turtle