Still on the road…long journey back to Asia with a couple of stops along the way.

Still sleep-deprived, hence inarticulate.

Just felt like posting this photo of a sperm whale blowing bubbles. This happened toward the end of one of our encounters.

Note: Photo taken under permit.

We’re packed up and getting ready to leave Dominica. It’s been a fantastic first trip to this lovely island nation, and I’m looking forward to visiting again.

Before I head out, I thought I’d share a story about Scar, a male sperm whale that seems to seek out and enjoy human company. He’s the whale featured in the recent newspaper articles from our trip.

I was fortunate enough to watch Scar interact with his fellow cetaceans when there was no one else in the water (read…during a couple of exhausting, prolonged swims).

Scar seems to enjoy playing, whether humans are involved or not.

I watched Scar play alone…twirling in circles, doing loops, hanging upside down…while other whales in his group seemed to be busy doing other stuff. I also noticed that Scar seems to be the favourite uncle or older brother for the two calfs that were in his group.

Here’s a photo of the two calfs swimming along with Scar:

I took this photo after witnessing an entertaining and memorable scene.

There are a few sperm whale researchers here at the moment, led by Hal Whitehead. During one of my prolonged swims with Scar, I saw the sonar array that they were towing behind their vessel, at a depth of around 20 to 25 metres.

Scar saw it too, and he swam down to take a look, eventually taking the the sonar array into his mouth for a taste test (I guess that’s the logical thing to do if you’re a sperm whale).

The two kids were swimming separately, but they must have noticed Scar having a good time, and they swam over, looked down at Scar, stopped to consider what Scar was doing, then rushed down to join in the fun.

Here are the two youngsters moments before they decide to crash uncle Scar’s party:

I laughed just enough to swallow a bit of seawater.

While we’re on the topic of sound, this is a short sample of sperm whale sonar communication, which we picked up on our boat’s hydrophone:

The most prominent clicks are from an adult male. There are other, more faint clicks in the background that are from females and/ or juveniles.

Off to the airport.

Note: Photos taken under permit.

We had amazing encounters yesterday with a family of resident whales called the Group of Seven.

Among the group were a couple of relatively large calfs, both of which were inquisitive and friendly.

At times, it was almost as if they presented themselves for photos (of course, at other times, we had to swim like mad just to keep up).

In case you ever wondered what a sperm whale looks like head-on, here’s a photo:

The lump at the top right (actually, the whale’s top left) is the blowhole, which is how the whale breathes. The pointy area at the bottom is the animal’s mouth. The attached remora and small school of attendant fish are optional accessories.

The splotchiness (is that a word?) is due sloughing off of dead skin. The darker patches are older skin, and the lighter patches are newer areas.

And to keep things in balance, here’s the view from the rear:

Attached remoras again optional.

Note: Photos taken under permit.

Photographing open-ocean cetaceans can involve a lot of swimming.

For instance, to be accepted into this group of sperm whales required what seemed like hours of swimming as hard and fast as I could. In reality, it was probably only 10 minutes, give or take, but swimming for 10 minutes in ocean swell with the objective of catching up to and overtaking a group of whales is exhausting…especially if you keep doing it over and over again.

But on those occasions when whales slow down just enough to let me swim side-by-side with them for a while…it’s well worth the effort.

Note: Photo taken under permit.

While we’re on the subject of big mouths from my previous post, here’s a shot of one whale mouthing another during a period of intense social interaction:

This playful mouthing seems to be a normal and frequent behaviour, as we’ve seen it many times in the social groups.

It doesn’t seem to involve aggression, and there doesn’t appear to be any serious force involved…sort of reminiscent of the way puppies in a litter play-bite one another…but more gentle.

Note: Photo taken under permit.

A couple of days ago, a large bull whale showed up to socialise with some of the younger males. Adult male sperm whales are huge.

In the water, it looked somewhere on the order of two to three times the size of the sub-adults, as well as being significantly greater in girth. They can grow to something on the order of 18 metres in length.

Of course, the pace of swimming was generally more rapid when the large adult was around, so it was difficult to keep up. After one extended swim, the whales took a right turn, giving me chance to close some distance…and this is what I saw:

The bull opened its mouth really wide, as if stretching its jaws. There was no aggression involved, and no sonar beyond the normal background chatter.

It was…to say the least…an impressive sight.

Note: Photo taken under permit.

We came across a baby sperm whale today, a fairly young one from the looks of it.

I’m tempted to say that the image below is a photograph of mother and calf, but it’s difficult to tell with sperm whales, as they practice communal care of young.

Note: The baby is swimming upside-down.

Female sperm whales help one another to look after babies, going so far as to practice communal nursing. I saw this baby nurse a few times with one of the adult females, but still…there’s no easy way to be completely certain of whether it was the baby’s mother or not.

In fact, I saw the baby “switch” adults a few times too, moving from one large whale to another as the group swam along.

The baby was part of an extended family group of whales that we stayed with for a couple of hours or so. I’m not sure how many whales were in the group, but the most I saw at any one time underwater was 13 adults plus the baby.

The following photo shows the baby with seven other whales.

Note: Photographs taken under permit.

Actually…heads down. This is from one of our earliest encounters, with a group of four whales.

When sperm whales socialise, they often bump and rub against each other, and also put their heads together.

Note: Photo taken under permit.

One of the things I’ve noticed over the past couple of days is that sperm whales pass gas quite often…at least the ones here do.

Perhaps I’m reading too much into this scene, but it seems that even among whales, when you fart…you’re expected to maintain a polite distance from the group.

Etiquette is etiquette after all.

Note: Photo taken under permit.

Among the whales we encountered yesterday was a group of four young males. This is the first time I’ve seen a group of young males like this hanging out together. Male sperm whales leave their family groups and live a mostly solitary life when they grow up.

Note: Photo taken under permit.

I seem to have really good luck with sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus).

At various times, I’ve found myself in the mouth of a sperm whale, photographing a sperm whale with a large chunk of giant squid in its mouth…and today, swimming for most of the day with groups of very friendly sperm whales.

It’s been a really long day, and I don’t have it in me to write much more, but as the saying goes…a picture is worth a thousand words:

Note: Photo taken under permit.