looking at me, and I discerned no aggression at all.
Sperm whales are stocky, and their characteristic bulbous heads can account
06 Using her immense, toothy mouth, she brought her little runaway back to the surface
for up to a third of their total length. Researchers believe that the whales’ heads serve as“ acoustic lenses”, focusing sound waves sent out during echolocation. Emitting high-frequency clicking sounds, the animals scan the surrounding environment and are able to image a large area. Whales communicate perpetually and are audible to others over great distances. As the birth was communicated, more and more animals arrived for the happy event. As the giants congregated, I realised that I was fully accepted.
Suddenly the mother wanted to identify the stranger in their midst carefully and maintained a distance of about nine metres. Until now, the whales had not noticed my presence, but suddenly the mother wanted to identify the stranger in their midst.
Quietly, but directly, the nine-metre-long giant turned in my direction and swam right up to me. Her massive head got bigger and bigger as the displaced water pushed me away. Water churned around me as the noise of her exhalations thundered in my ears. I saw her beautiful eye
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The mother swam to the other groups of whales to present her child. Incredibly, she even did the same for me, stopping and allowing the baby to swim toward me. About 20 minutes after birth, the baby was already stronger and faster and eager to venture away on its own, which the mother did not approve of at all. Using her immense, toothy mouth, she brought her little runaway back to the surface.
As this magical event came to its conclusion after about 30 minutes, the whales disappeared into the blue of the Atlantic, while the mother descended with her child into the depths.
The average dive time for a sperm whale is 45 minutes, but some may extend up to 120 minutes. How it is possible for sperm whales to hold their breath for such extended periods has not yet been fully explained, but it is known that they are able to restrict and slow their metabolism to a minimum while diving, during which time blood is directed only toward essential organs such as the heart, brain and spinal cord.
In my 45 years of underwater photography, I have documented many spectacular and unique situations, but this experience provided the singlemost powerful encounter of my life. I hope my images will spread awareness and encourage people to support the protection of these intelligent and endangered marine mammals. SDOP